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Azimuthally averaged wind and thermodynamic structures of tropical cyclones in global climate models and their sensitivity to horizontal resolution

Journal Article · · Journal of Climate
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [6]
  1. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States); University of Washington
  2. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
  3. Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY (United States). Lamont-Doherty EarthObservatory
  4. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States)
  5. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  6. NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab. Princeton, NJ (United States)
  7. Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)
  8. Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC), Bologna (Italy)
  9. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  10. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  11. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
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Characteristics of tropical cyclones (TCs) in global climate models (GCMs) are known to be influenced by details of the model configurations, including horizontal resolution and parameterization schemes. Understanding model-to-model differences in TC characteristics is a prerequisite for reducing uncertainty in future TC activity projections by GCMs. This study performs a process-level examination of TC structures in eight GCM simulations that span a range of horizontal resolutions from 1° to 0.25°. A recently developed set of process-oriented diagnostics is used to examine the azimuthally averaged wind and thermodynamic structures of the GCM-simulated TCs. Results indicate that the inner-core wind structures of simulated TCs are more strongly constrained by the horizontal resolutions of the models than are the thermodynamic structures of those TCs. As expected, the structures of TC circulations become more realistic with smaller horizontal grid spacing, such that the radii of maximum wind (RMW) become smaller, and the maximum vertical velocities occur off the center. However, the RMWs are still too large, especially at higher intensities, and there are rising motions occurring at the storm centers, inconsistently with observations. The distributions of precipitation, moisture, radiative and surface turbulent heat fluxes around TCs are diverse, even across models with similar horizontal resolutions. At the same horizontal resolution, models that produce greater rainfall in the inner-core regions tend to simulate stronger TCs. Further, when TCs are weak, the radial gradient of net column radiative flux convergence is comparable to that of surface turbulent heat fluxes, emphasizing the importance of cloud-radiative feedbacks during the early developmental phases of TCs.
Research Organization:
Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); National Science Foundation (NSF); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Korean Meteorological Administration Research and Development Program
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0016223
OSTI ID:
1659515
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1908813
Journal Information:
Journal of Climate, Journal Name: Journal of Climate Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 33; ISSN 0894-8755
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
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