Interactions between clouds, water vapor, radiation, and circulation influence the organization of tropical convection, and the development of tropical cyclones (TCs). This includes the self-aggregation (SA) of convection in idealized models, in which a random distribution of clouds spontaneously transitions to coherent moist convective clusters, surrounded by dry air. The resulting organized convection may exist in several modes, including TCs when rotation is introduced. This suggests that SA, and the relative roles of the mechanisms that cause it, change with the strength of the background rotation (f). This hypothesis is addressed using a hierarchy of cloud-resolving model simulations. 31 f-plane simulations correspond to latitudes between 0.1°-20°N, simulating a range of tropical and near-equatorial environments largely unexplored in prior literature. Five β-plane experiments are also developed to study co-existent TCs, SA, and equatorial waves in a large, more realistic domain. In particular, these simulations allow the isolation of specific feedbacks contributing to SA, how these change with f, and the fundamental physics behind spontaneous TC genesis when convection is allowed to operate freely. Simulations on the f-plane show that SA depends strongly on the background rotation. Under weak rotation (≤ 5°N), radiative feedbacks dominate in organizing convection into one coherent cluster. In cases where this cluster takes a circular shape, a weak TC subsequently forms following a ''bottom-up'' pathway, aided by low-level convergence from a large-scale overturning circulation. In β-plane simulations, equatorial organized convection is dominated by spontaneous Kelvin and equatorial Rossby waves. Under stronger rotation, SA only exists in the form of TCs. This occurs if surface enthalpy flux feedbacks can offset the negative feedback from advective processes. Upon TC genesis from an initial mid-level vortex, drying subsequently takes place elsewhere. In between these two well-defined regimes, SA fails to fully take place. Finally, 20°N f-plane simulations are used to test how a limited set of observations captures moist static energy (MSE) variability around TCs. This is done to assess if radiative and surface flux feedbacks can reasonably be quantified in real TCs. Various patterns of grid points are developed to resemble dropsonde launch points in aircraft reconnaissance flight patterns. This work reveals that the TC's mid- and upper-level warm core contributes significantly to MSE variance, and that estimates of MSE variance and feedbacks are sensitive to the radial distribution of dropsondes.
