Moist Static Energy Budget Analysis of Tropical Cyclone Intensification in High-Resolution Climate Models
[1];
- Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York
- Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, New York, New York
- Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
- NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
- School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
- Department of Geosciences and Princeton Environmental Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
- NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey
Abstract Tropical cyclone intensification processes are explored in six high-resolution climate models. The analysis framework employs process-oriented diagnostics that focus on how convection, moisture, clouds, and related processes are coupled. These diagnostics include budgets of column moist static energy and the spatial variance of column moist static energy, where the column integral is performed between fixed pressure levels. The latter allows for the quantification of the different feedback processes responsible for the amplification of moist static energy anomalies associated with the organization of convection and cyclone spinup, including surface flux feedbacks and cloud-radiative feedbacks. Tropical cyclones (TCs) are tracked in the climate model simulations and the analysis is applied along the individual tracks and composited over many TCs. Two methods of compositing are employed: a composite over all TC snapshots in a given intensity range, and a composite over all TC snapshots at the same stage in the TC life cycle (same time relative to the time of lifetime maximum intensity for each storm). The radiative feedback contributes to TC development in all models, especially in storms of weaker intensity or earlier stages of development. Notably, the surface flux feedback is stronger in models that simulate more intense TCs. This indicates that the representation of the interaction between spatially varying surface fluxes and the developing TC is responsible for at least part of the intermodel spread in TC simulation.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0016223
- OSTI ID:
- 1557917
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Climate, Journal Name: Journal of Climate Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 32; ISSN 0894-8755
- Publisher:
- American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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