ON THE THEORY OF CISK

Theories for the cooperative interaction between cumulus convection an d a developing cyclonic Vortex proposed independently by Ooyama and by Charney and Eliassen in the early 1960s are re-examined in the Light of recent studies and recent criticisms. It is suggested that the crit icisms have sidestepped the concept of cooperative intensification as envisaged by Ooyama. However, a later, but much neglected, contention by Ooyama is supported: this is that the Linear theories worked out by Charney and Eliassen and others are, in themselves, physically ill-fo unded. The relationship between Ooyama's cooperative intensification t heory and the recent theory of Emanuel based on Wind-induced Surface B eat Exchange (WISHE) is also discussed. The main difference between th ese two theories appears to be the degree of emphasis placed by the re spective authors on the relative importance of convection and surface fluxes in the intensification of hurricanes.