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The Response of Atlantic Tropical Cyclones to Suppression of African Easterly Waves

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076081· OSTI ID:1544342
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
  3. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States); Ocean Univ. of China, Qingdao (China)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) genesis is strongly linked with African easterly waves (AEWs) on the synoptic time scale. However, the TC–AEW relationship is unclear on interannual to climate time scales, and it is unknown whether AEWs are necessary to maintain climatological TC frequency, that is, whether TCs are limited by AEWs. We investigated the impact of AEW suppression on seasonal Atlantic TC activity using a 10–member ensemble of regional climate model simulations in which AEWs were either prescribed or removed through the lateral boundary condition. The climate model experiments produced no significant change in seasonal Atlantic TC number, indicating that AEWs are not necessary to maintain climatological basin–wide TC frequency even though TCs readily originate from these types of disturbances. This suggests that the specific type of “seedling” disturbance is unimportant for determining basin–wide seasonal Atlantic TC number and that in the absence of AEWs, TCs will generate by other mechanisms. Furthermore, the results imply that changes in the presence of AEWs may not be reliable predictors of seasonal variability and future change in Atlantic TC frequency.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1544342
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1417006
OSTI ID: 1563943
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 45; ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (4)

Future changes in Atlantic hurricanes with the rotated-stretched ARPEGE-Climat at very high resolution journal November 2019
Relative Impacts of Local and Remote Forcing on Tropical Cyclone Frequency in Numerical Model Simulations journal August 2018
Impacts of Extratropical Weather Perturbations on Tropical Cyclone Activity: Idealized Sensitivity Experiments With a Regional Atmospheric Model journal December 2019
Large-scale dynamics of tropical cyclone formation associated with ITCZ breakdown journal January 2019

Figures / Tables (4)

Figure 1(p. 3)figure Figure 1
Table 1(p. 4)table Table 1
Figure 2(p. 5)figure Figure 2
Figure 3(p. 6)figure Figure 3

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Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
African easterly waves
climate variability
tropical cyclogenesis
tropical cyclones