Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Evaluating the Influence of CAM5 Aerosol Configuration on Simulated Tropical Cyclones in the North Atlantic

Journal Article · · Climate
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/cli10090130· OSTI ID:1885068

This study examines the influence of prescribed and prognostic aerosol model configurations on the formation of tropical cyclones (TCs) in the North Atlantic Ocean in Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5). The impact of aerosol parameterization is examined by investigating storm track density, genesis density, potential intensity, and genesis potential index. This work shows that both CAM5 configurations simulate reduced storm frequency when compared to observations and that differences in TC climatology between the model configurations can be explained by differences in the large-scale environment. The analysis shows that simulation with the prognostic aerosol parameterization scheme reasonably captures the observed interannual variability in tropical cyclones and aerosols (i.e., dust) in the North Atlantic, while simulation with the prescribed configuration (climatology) is less favorable. The correlation between dust and TCs in observations (i.e., reanalysis and satellite datasets) is shown to be negative, and this relationship was also found for the prognostic aerosol configuration despite an overall decrease in the frequency of TCs. This indicates that, to accurately replicate certain aspects of TC interannual variability, the aerosol configuration within CAM5 needs to account for the appropriate dust variability.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0016605; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1885068
Journal Information:
Climate, Journal Name: Climate Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 10; ISSN CLIMC9; ISSN 2225-1154
Publisher:
MDPI AGCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
Switzerland
Language:
English

References (65)

The effect of horizontal resolution on simulation quality in the Community Atmospheric Model, CAM5.1 journal November 2014
Impact of assimilated and interactive aerosol on tropical cyclogenesis journal May 2014
The influence of absorbed solar radiation by Saharan dust on hurricane genesis journal March 2015
A multidecadal simulation of Atlantic tropical cyclones using a variable-resolution global atmospheric general circulation model journal August 2014
Characteristics of tropical cyclones in high‐resolution models in the present climate journal December 2014
Impact of the dynamical core on the direct simulation of tropical cyclones in a high-resolution global model: DYNAMICAL CORE IMPACT ON TC ACTIVITY journal May 2015
Tropical cyclones in the spectral element configuration of the Community Atmosphere Model journal August 2012
Response of tropical sea surface temperature, precipitation, and tropical cyclone-related variables to changes in global and local forcing: Response of Tropical Climate To Forcing journal June 2013
Saharan dust and the African easterly jet–African easterly wave system: Structure, location and energetics
  • Bercos‐Hickey, Emily; Nathan, Terrence R.; Chen, Shu‐Hua
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 143, Issue 708 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3128
journal September 2017
An explicit flux-form semi-lagrangian shallow-water model on the sphere journal October 1997
The formation of tropical cyclones journal March 1998
The footprints of Saharan air layer and lightning on the formation of tropical depressions over the eastern Atlantic Ocean journal September 2014
Modeling high-impact weather and climate: lessons from a tropical cyclone perspective journal October 2013
Projected changes in tropical cyclone activity under future warming scenarios using a high-resolution climate model journal August 2016
Early 21st century anthropogenic changes in extremely hot days as simulated by the C20C+ detection and attribution multi-model ensemble journal June 2018
Radiative forcing due to sulfate aerosols from simulations with the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model, Version 3 journal January 2000
African dust aerosols as atmospheric ice nuclei: AFRICAN DUST AEROSOLS AS ICE NUCLEI journal July 2003
MIRAGE: Model description and evaluation of aerosols and trace gases journal January 2004
New evidence for a relationship between Atlantic tropical cyclone activity and African dust outbreaks journal January 2006
A northward shift of the North Atlantic Ocean Intertropical Convergence Zone in response to summertime Saharan dust outbreaks: SAHARAN DUST OUTBREAKS AND ATLANTIC ITCZ journal February 2010
Impact of physical parameterizations on idealized tropical cyclones in the Community Atmosphere Model: IMPACT OF PHYSICS ON TROPICAL CYCLONES journal February 2011
Idealized tropical cyclone simulations of intermediate complexity: A test case for AGCMs journal February 2012
The Climatological Effect of Saharan Dust on Global Tropical Cyclones in a Fully Coupled GCM journal May 2018
Exploring the Impact of Dust on North Atlantic Hurricanes in a High‐Resolution Climate Model journal January 2019
Global Dust Variability Explained by Drought Sensitivity in CMIP6 Models journal June 2021
Anthropogenic aerosol forcing of Atlantic tropical storms journal June 2013
Degree of simulated suppression of Atlantic tropical cyclones modulated by flavour of El Niño journal December 2015
Physical understanding of the tropical cyclone wind-pressure relationship journal November 2017
Development of a new over‐water Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer dust detection algorithm journal September 2006
How may tropical cyclones change in a warmer climate? journal January 2007
Generation of the African Easterly Jet and Its Role in Determining West African Precipitation journal May 1999
The Large-Scale Movement of Saharan Air Outbreaks over the Northern Equatorial Atlantic journal March 1972
Sensitivity of Tropical Cyclones to Surface Exchange Coefficients and a Revised Steady-State Model incorporating Eye Dynamics journal November 1995
An Overview of the Results of the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP I) journal January 1999
Atlantic Seasonal Hurricane Frequency. Part I: El Niño and 30 mb Quasi-Biennial Oscillation Influences journal September 1984
Multidimensional Flux-Form Semi-Lagrangian Transport Schemes journal September 1996
The International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS): Unifying Tropical Cyclone Data journal March 2010
Simulations of Global Hurricane Climatology, Interannual Variability, and Response to Global Warming Using a 50-km Resolution GCM journal December 2009
Reevaluating the Role of the Saharan Air Layer in Atlantic Tropical Cyclogenesis and Evolution journal June 2010
The Impact of the Saharan Air Layer on Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Activity journal March 2004
A Ventilation Index for Tropical Cyclones journal December 2012
The Community Earth System Model: A Framework for Collaborative Research journal September 2013
The Pathfinder Atmospheres–Extended AVHRR Climate Dataset journal June 2014
Some Counterintuitive Dependencies of Tropical Cyclone Frequency on Parameters in a GCM journal July 2012
Saharan Dust and the Nonlinear Evolution of the African Easterly Jet–African Easterly Wave System journal December 2016
Future Changes in Tropical Cyclone Activity Projected by the New High-Resolution MRI-AGCM journal May 2012
Investigating the Use of a Genesis Potential Index for Tropical Cyclones in the North Atlantic Basin journal December 2012
Exploratory High-Resolution Climate Simulations using the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) journal May 2014
Tropical Cyclones in the UPSCALE Ensemble of High-Resolution Global Climate Models journal January 2015
Resolution Dependence of Future Tropical Cyclone Projections of CAM5.1 in the U.S. CLIVAR Hurricane Working Group Idealized Configurations journal May 2015
Uncertainty in Model Climate Sensitivity Traced to Representations of Cumulus Precipitation Microphysics journal January 2016
Improved Simulation of Tropical Cyclone Responses to ENSO in the Western North Pacific in the High-Resolution GFDL HiFLOR Coupled Climate Model* journal February 2016
How Well Are Tropical Cyclones Represented in Reanalysis Datasets? journal July 2017
The MERRA-2 Aerosol Reanalysis, 1980 Onward. Part I: System Description and Data Assimilation Evaluation journal September 2017
The Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) journal July 2017
Impacts of Saharan Dust on Atlantic Regional Climate and Implications for Tropical Cyclones journal September 2018
Use of a Genesis Potential Index to Diagnose ENSO Effects on Tropical Cyclone Genesis journal October 2007
Assessing Tropical Cyclones’ Contribution to Precipitation over the Eastern United States and Sensitivity to the Variable-Resolution Domain Extent journal May 2020
Experimental Tropical Cyclone Forecasts Using a Variable-Resolution Global Model journal October 2015
Impact of Interactive Aerosol on the African Easterly Jet in the NASA GEOS-5 Global Forecasting System journal August 2011
Tropical Cyclone Climatology in a Global-Warming Climate as Simulated in a 20 km-Mesh Global Atmospheric Model: Frequency and Wind Intensity Analyses journal January 2006
Tropical cyclone activity downscaled from NOAA-CIRES Reanalysis, 1908–1958 journal January 2010
Revisiting the relationship between Atlantic dust and tropical cyclone activity using aerosol optical depth reanalyses: 2003–2018 journal December 2020
Impact of cloud-borne aerosol representation on aerosol direct and indirect effects journal January 2006
Overview of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) experimental design and organization journal January 2016

Similar Records

Exploring the Impact of Dust on North Atlantic Hurricanes in a High-Resolution Climate Model
Journal Article · Sun Jan 27 23:00:00 EST 2019 · Geophysical Research Letters · OSTI ID:1609296

The Response of Atlantic Tropical Cyclones to Suppression of African Easterly Waves
Journal Article · Wed Dec 27 23:00:00 EST 2017 · Geophysical Research Letters · OSTI ID:1544342

Related Subjects