Wind-induced surface heat exchange

The wind-induced surface heat exchange (WISHE) is a positive feedback mechanism between the ocean and atmosphere in which a stronger ocean-to-atmosphere heat flux results in a stronger atmospheric circulation, which results in a strong heat flux.^[1] It has been hypothesized that this is the mechanism by which low pressure areas in the tropics develop into tropical cyclones.

The WISHE mechanism was proposed by Kerry Emanuel in a Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences article published in 1986 – though it was first termed "air–sea interaction instability" – as an alternative to the more prevalent conditional instability of a second kind (CISK) hypothesis.^[2]