The Response of Atlantic Tropical Cyclones to Suppression of African Easterly Waves
Abstract
©2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. 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. 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.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[3]
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
- Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States); Ocean Univ. of China, Qingdao (China)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1544342
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1417006; OSTI ID: 1563943
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231; DE‐AC02‐05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 45; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 58 GEOSCIENCES; tropical cyclones; tropical cyclogenesis; African easterly waves; climate variability
Citation Formats
Patricola, Christina M., Saravanan, R., and Chang, Ping. The Response of Atlantic Tropical Cyclones to Suppression of African Easterly Waves. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1002/2017GL076081.
Patricola, Christina M., Saravanan, R., & Chang, Ping. The Response of Atlantic Tropical Cyclones to Suppression of African Easterly Waves. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076081
Patricola, Christina M., Saravanan, R., and Chang, Ping. Thu .
"The Response of Atlantic Tropical Cyclones to Suppression of African Easterly Waves". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076081. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1544342.
@article{osti_1544342,
title = {The Response of Atlantic Tropical Cyclones to Suppression of African Easterly Waves},
author = {Patricola, Christina M. and Saravanan, R. and Chang, Ping},
abstractNote = {©2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. 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. 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.},
doi = {10.1002/2017GL076081},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 1,
volume = 45,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Dec 28 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Thu Dec 28 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}
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Figure 1: (a) The regional climate model domain. The blue rectangle denotes the latitude over which a 2–10 day Lanczos filter was applied to the eastern LBC in the AEW suppressed experiment. (b) The time series of 6-hourly meridional wind (m s-1) at 15°N, 15°W (denoted by star in Figuremore »
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