中文摘要：

由于热带海洋上观测资料的稀缺和热带气旋系统本身发生发展的复杂性，热带气旋生成机制的研究领域至今仍然存在很多未解之谜。半个多世纪以来，科学工作者们利用有限的船舶、探空仪、雷达、卫星、飞机等观测资料以及数值天气模式，对热带气旋生成的气候背景场、扰动源和触发机制做了大量研究。介绍了近50年来国内外热带气旋生成机制的主要研究成果，总结了该领域的研究进展及其存在的优势和不足，指出热带气旋生成机制研究中依然存在的问题，同时展望了该领域未来的发展方向。

英文摘要：

The mechanisms of tropical cyclone genesis remain enigmatic and controversial, because of the lack of observations over the tropical oceans and the complexities of tropical cyclone lifecycle. Since 1950＇s, meteorologists have done lots of jobs to investigate the nature of environment, external forcing and trigger mechanism of tropical cyclone formation using limited observations and numerical simulations. Some important progress on tropical cyclone genesis all over the world during recent 50 years is reviewed in this paper. In addition, the advantages and shortcomings of each viewpoint, the remaining questions and what should be focused on in the future are discussed.