DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Future projections in tropical cyclone activity over multiple CORDEX domains from RegCM4 CORDEX-CORE simulations

Abstract

The characteristics of tropical cyclone (TC) activity over five TC basins lying within four Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) domains are examined for present and future climate conditions using a new ensemble of simulations completed as part of the CORDEX-CORE initiative with the regional climate model RegCM4. The simulations are conducted at a 25 km horizontal grid spacing and are driven by three CMIP5 general circulation models (GCMs) under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5). The RegCM4 captures most features of the observed TC climatology, except for the TC intensity, which is thus statistically adjusted using a bias correction procedure to account for the effect of the coarse model resolution. The RegCM4 exhibits an improved simulation of several TC statistics compared to the driving GCMs, over most basins analyzed. In future climate conditions we find significant increases in TC frequency over the North Indian Ocean, the Northwest Pacific and Eastern Pacific regions, which are consistent with an increase in mid-tropospheric relative humidity. The North Atlantic and Australasia regions show a decrease in TC frequency, mostly associated with an increase in wind shear. We also find a consistent increase in future storm rainfall rates associated with TCs and in themore » frequency of the most intense TCs over most domains. Finally, our study shows robust responses often, but not always, in line with previous studies, still implying the presence of significant uncertainties in the projection of TC characteristics, which need to be addressed using large ensembles of simulations with high-resolution models.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5];  [1]
  1. International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste (Italy)
  2. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
  3. Univ. of Reading (United Kingdom)
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  5. International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste (Italy); Istituto di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), Trieste (Italy)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; HPC-TRES
OSTI Identifier:
1817603
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725; 2015-07
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Climate Dynamics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 57; Journal Issue: 5-6; Journal ID: ISSN 0930-7575
Publisher:
Springer-Verlag
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; regional climate model; CORDEX-CORE; tropical cyclones; climate change

Citation Formats

Torres-Alavez, José Abraham, Glazer, Russell, Giorgi, Filippo, Coppola, Erika, Gao, Xuejie, Hodges, Kevin I., Das, Sushant, Ashfaq, Moetasim, Reale, Marco, and Sines, Taleena. Future projections in tropical cyclone activity over multiple CORDEX domains from RegCM4 CORDEX-CORE simulations. United States: N. p., 2021. Web. doi:10.1007/s00382-021-05728-6.
Torres-Alavez, José Abraham, Glazer, Russell, Giorgi, Filippo, Coppola, Erika, Gao, Xuejie, Hodges, Kevin I., Das, Sushant, Ashfaq, Moetasim, Reale, Marco, & Sines, Taleena. Future projections in tropical cyclone activity over multiple CORDEX domains from RegCM4 CORDEX-CORE simulations. United States. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-05728-6
Torres-Alavez, José Abraham, Glazer, Russell, Giorgi, Filippo, Coppola, Erika, Gao, Xuejie, Hodges, Kevin I., Das, Sushant, Ashfaq, Moetasim, Reale, Marco, and Sines, Taleena. Tue . "Future projections in tropical cyclone activity over multiple CORDEX domains from RegCM4 CORDEX-CORE simulations". United States. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-05728-6. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1817603.
@article{osti_1817603,
title = {Future projections in tropical cyclone activity over multiple CORDEX domains from RegCM4 CORDEX-CORE simulations},
author = {Torres-Alavez, José Abraham and Glazer, Russell and Giorgi, Filippo and Coppola, Erika and Gao, Xuejie and Hodges, Kevin I. and Das, Sushant and Ashfaq, Moetasim and Reale, Marco and Sines, Taleena},
abstractNote = {The characteristics of tropical cyclone (TC) activity over five TC basins lying within four Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) domains are examined for present and future climate conditions using a new ensemble of simulations completed as part of the CORDEX-CORE initiative with the regional climate model RegCM4. The simulations are conducted at a 25 km horizontal grid spacing and are driven by three CMIP5 general circulation models (GCMs) under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5). The RegCM4 captures most features of the observed TC climatology, except for the TC intensity, which is thus statistically adjusted using a bias correction procedure to account for the effect of the coarse model resolution. The RegCM4 exhibits an improved simulation of several TC statistics compared to the driving GCMs, over most basins analyzed. In future climate conditions we find significant increases in TC frequency over the North Indian Ocean, the Northwest Pacific and Eastern Pacific regions, which are consistent with an increase in mid-tropospheric relative humidity. The North Atlantic and Australasia regions show a decrease in TC frequency, mostly associated with an increase in wind shear. We also find a consistent increase in future storm rainfall rates associated with TCs and in the frequency of the most intense TCs over most domains. Finally, our study shows robust responses often, but not always, in line with previous studies, still implying the presence of significant uncertainties in the projection of TC characteristics, which need to be addressed using large ensembles of simulations with high-resolution models.},
doi = {10.1007/s00382-021-05728-6},
journal = {Climate Dynamics},
number = 5-6,
volume = 57,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Apr 06 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Tue Apr 06 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}

Works referenced in this record:

The Role of Tropical Cyclones in Precipitation Over the Tropical and Subtropical North America
journal, March 2018


Determining tropical cyclone inland flooding loss on a large scale through a new flood peak ratio-based methodology
journal, December 2013

  • Czajkowski, Jeffrey; Villarini, Gabriele; Michel-Kerjan, Erwann
  • Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 8, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/044056

Evaluation of 23 gridded precipitation datasets across West Africa
journal, February 2020


Changes in Tropical Cyclone Number, Duration, and Intensity in a Warming Environment
journal, September 2005


The Kain–Fritsch Convective Parameterization: An Update
journal, January 2004


Feature Tracking on the Unit Sphere
journal, December 1995


Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change Assessment: Part I: Detection and Attribution
journal, October 2019

  • Knutson, Thomas; Camargo, Suzana J.; Chan, Johnny C. L.
  • Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 100, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0189.1

A One-Dimensional Entraining/Detraining Plume Model and Its Application in Convective Parameterization
journal, December 1990


Projected changes in tropical cyclone activity under future warming scenarios using a high-resolution climate model
journal, August 2016


Tropical cyclones and climate change
journal, February 2010

  • Knutson, Thomas R.; McBride, John L.; Chan, Johnny
  • Nature Geoscience, Vol. 3, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1038/ngeo779

How may tropical cyclones change in a warmer climate?
journal, January 2007


An Analysis of the Effect of Global Warming on the Intensity of Atlantic Hurricanes Using a GCM with Statistical Refinement
journal, December 2010


An inter-hemispheric comparison of the tropical storm response to global warming
journal, August 2013

  • Gleixner, Stephanie; Keenlyside, Noel; Hodges, Kevin I.
  • Climate Dynamics, Vol. 42, Issue 7-8
  • DOI: 10.1007/s00382-013-1914-6

MSWEP: 3-hourly 0.25° global gridded precipitation (1979–2015) by merging gauge, satellite, and reanalysis data
journal, January 2017

  • Beck, Hylke E.; van Dijk, Albert I. J. M.; Levizzani, Vincenzo
  • Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol. 21, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.5194/hess-21-589-2017

Projections of tropical cyclones affecting Vietnam under climate change: downscaled HadGEM2-ES using PRECIS 2.1: Projections of Tropical Cyclones Affecting Vietnam using PRECIS 2.1
journal, April 2017

  • Wang, Changgui; Liang, Ju; Hodges, Kevin I.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 143, Issue 705
  • DOI: 10.1002/qj.3046

WCRP COordinated Regional Downscaling EXperiment (CORDEX): a diagnostic MIP for CMIP6
journal, January 2016

  • Gutowski Jr., William J.; Giorgi, Filippo; Timbal, Bertrand
  • Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 9, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.5194/gmd-9-4087-2016

Use of a Genesis Potential Index to Diagnose ENSO Effects on Tropical Cyclone Genesis
journal, October 2007

  • Camargo, Suzana J.; Emanuel, Kerry A.; Sobel, Adam H.
  • Journal of Climate, Vol. 20, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.1175/JCLI4282.1

Environmental Control of Tropical Cyclone Intensity
journal, April 2004


Regional Dynamical Downscaling and the CORDEX Initiative
journal, November 2015


An Overview of CMIP5 and the Experiment Design
journal, April 2012

  • Taylor, Karl E.; Stouffer, Ronald J.; Meehl, Gerald A.
  • Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 93, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00094.1

The impact of climate model sea surface temperature biases on tropical cyclone simulations
journal, December 2018


International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) Project, Version 4
dataset, January 2018

  • Knapp, Kenneth R.; Diamond, Howard J.; Kossin, James P.
  • NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
  • DOI: 10.25921/82ty-9e16

Contribution of Tropical Cyclones to Rainfall at the Global Scale
journal, January 2017

  • Khouakhi, Abdou; Villarini, Gabriele; Vecchi, Gabriel A.
  • Journal of Climate, Vol. 30, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0298.1

Evaluation of climatological tropical cyclone activity over the western North Pacific in the CORDEX-East Asia multi-RCM simulations
journal, November 2015


Daily evaluation of 26 precipitation datasets using Stage-IV gauge-radar data for the CONUS
journal, January 2019

  • Beck, Hylke E.; Pan, Ming; Roy, Tirthankar
  • Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol. 23, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.5194/hess-23-207-2019

Influence of Model Biases on Projected Future Changes in Tropical Cyclone Frequency of Occurrence
journal, March 2014


Effects of Vertical Wind Shear on the Intensity and Structure of Numerically Simulated Hurricanes
journal, September 2001


Extreme precipitation trends associated with tropical cyclones in the core of the North American monsoon
journal, January 2008

  • Cavazos, Tereza; Turrent, C.; Lettenmaier, D. P.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 35, Issue 21
  • DOI: 10.1029/2008GL035832

Projected Response of Tropical Cyclone Intensity and Intensification in a Global Climate Model
journal, October 2018

  • Bhatia, Kieran; Vecchi, Gabriel; Murakami, Hiroyuki
  • Journal of Climate, Vol. 31, Issue 20
  • DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0898.1

Assessment of CMIP5 global model simulations over the subset of CORDEX domains used in the Phase I CREMA
journal, September 2013


Adaptive Constraints for Feature Tracking
journal, June 1999


The International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS): Unifying Tropical Cyclone Data
journal, March 2010

  • Knapp, Kenneth R.; Kruk, Michael C.; Levinson, David H.
  • Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 91, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1175/2009BAMS2755.1

Dynamical Downscaling Projections of Twenty-First-Century Atlantic Hurricane Activity: CMIP3 and CMIP5 Model-Based Scenarios
journal, September 2013

  • Knutson, Thomas R.; Sirutis, Joseph J.; Vecchi, Gabriel A.
  • Journal of Climate, Vol. 26, Issue 17
  • DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00539.1

Intercomparison of Bulk Aerodynamic Algorithms for the Computation of Sea Surface Fluxes Using TOGA COARE and TAO Data
journal, October 1998


A New Moist Turbulence Parameterization in the Community Atmosphere Model
journal, June 2009


Atmospheric component of the MPI-M Earth System Model: ECHAM6: ECHAM6
journal, April 2013

  • Stevens, Bjorn; Giorgetta, Marco; Esch, Monika
  • Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 5, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1002/jame.20015

Influence of hurricane-related activity on North American extreme precipitation: HURRICANES AND NORTH AMERICAN EXTREMES
journal, February 2011


Significant Increases in Extreme Precipitation and the Associations with Global Warming over the Global Land Monsoon Regions
journal, December 2019


GFDL’s ESM2 Global Coupled Climate–Carbon Earth System Models. Part I: Physical Formulation and Baseline Simulation Characteristics
journal, October 2012


Eastern Tropical Pacific hurricane variability and landfalls on Mexican coasts
journal, January 2014

  • Martinez-Sanchez, Jn; Cavazos, T.
  • Climate Research, Vol. 58, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.3354/cr01192

A QuikSCAT climatology of tropical cyclone size: TROPICAL CYCLONE SIZE DISTRIBUTION
journal, September 2010

  • Chavas, D. R.; Emanuel, K. A.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 37, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.1029/2010GL044558

Increased tropical Atlantic wind shear in model projections of global warming: ATLANTIC WIND SHEAR AND GLOBAL WARMING
journal, April 2007

  • Vecchi, Gabriel A.; Soden, Brian J.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 34, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1029/2006GL028905

Dynamically downscaled simulations of Australian region tropical cyclones in current and future climates: AUSTRALIAN REGION TROPICAL CYCLONES
journal, May 2011

  • Lavender, S. L.; Walsh, K. J. E.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 38, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1029/2011GL047499

A General Method for Tracking Analysis and Its Application to Meteorological Data
journal, November 1994


Future Changes in the Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Activity Projected by a Multidecadal Simulation with a 16-km Global Atmospheric GCM
journal, October 2014

  • Manganello, Julia V.; Hodges, Kevin I.; Dirmeyer, Brandt
  • Journal of Climate, Vol. 27, Issue 20
  • DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00678.1

H‐D Interdiffusion in Single‐Crystal Olivine: Implications for Electrical Conductivity in the Upper Mantle
journal, June 2019

  • Sun, Wei; Yoshino, Takashi; Kuroda, Minami
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 124, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1029/2019JB017576

Sensitivity of Simulated Tropical Cyclone Structure and Intensity to Horizontal Resolution
journal, March 2010

  • Gentry, Megan S.; Lackmann, Gary M.
  • Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 138, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1175/2009MWR2976.1

Projection of future changes in the frequency of intense tropical cyclones
journal, September 2016


Tropical Cyclone Climatology in a 10-km Global Atmospheric GCM: Toward Weather-Resolving Climate Modeling
journal, June 2012

  • Manganello, Julia V.; Hodges, Kevin I.; Kinter, James L.
  • Journal of Climate, Vol. 25, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00346.1

Increasing frequency of extremely severe cyclonic storms over the Arabian Sea
journal, November 2017

  • Murakami, Hiroyuki; Vecchi, Gabriel A.; Underwood, Seth
  • Nature Climate Change, Vol. 7, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41558-017-0008-6

Projection of Landfalling–Tropical Cyclone Rainfall in the Eastern United States under Anthropogenic Warming
journal, September 2018


Simulation of regional-scale water and energy budgets: Representation of subgrid cloud and precipitation processes within RegCM
journal, December 2000

  • Pal, Jeremy S.; Small, Eric E.; Eltahir, Elfatih A. B.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 105, Issue D24
  • DOI: 10.1029/2000JD900415

Objectively Determined Resolution-Dependent Threshold Criteria for the Detection of Tropical Cyclones in Climate Models and Reanalyses
journal, May 2007

  • Walsh, K. J. E.; Fiorino, M.; Landsea, C. W.
  • Journal of Climate, Vol. 20, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1175/JCLI4074.1

Tropical cyclones and climate change: Tropical cyclones and climate change
journal, November 2015

  • Walsh, Kevin J. E.; McBride, John L.; Klotzbach, Philip J.
  • Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, Vol. 7, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1002/wcc.371

Global and Regional Aspects of Tropical Cyclone Activity in the CMIP5 Models
journal, December 2013


Hurricanes and Global Warming: Results from Downscaling IPCC AR4 Simulations
journal, March 2008

  • Emanuel, Kerry; Sundararajan, Ragoth; Williams, John
  • Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 89, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-89-3-347

Future changes in tropical cyclone activity projected by multi-physics and multi-SST ensemble experiments using the 60-km-mesh MRI-AGCM
journal, October 2011


Pre-industrial and mid-Pliocene simulations with NorESM-L
journal, January 2012

  • Zhang, Z. S.; Nisancioglu, K.; Bentsen, M.
  • Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 5, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.5194/gmd-5-523-2012

Tropical cyclones in a regional climate change projection with RegCM4 over the CORDEX Central America domain
journal, June 2014


Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change Assessment: Part II: Projected Response to Anthropogenic Warming
journal, March 2020

  • Knutson, Thomas; Camargo, Suzana J.; Chan, Johnny C. L.
  • Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 101, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0194.1

Future Changes in Tropical Cyclone Activity Projected by the New High-Resolution MRI-AGCM
journal, May 2012


Global-scale evaluation of 22 precipitation datasets using gauge observations and hydrological modeling
journal, January 2017

  • Beck, Hylke E.; Vergopolan, Noemi; Pan, Ming
  • Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol. 21, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.5194/hess-21-6201-2017

Characteristics of Bay of Bengal Monsoon Depressions in the 21st Century
journal, July 2018

  • Rastogi, Deeksha; Ashfaq, Moetasim; Leung, L. Ruby
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 45, Issue 13
  • DOI: 10.1029/2018GL078756

Global Projections of Intense Tropical Cyclone Activity for the Late Twenty-First Century from Dynamical Downscaling of CMIP5/RCP4.5 Scenarios
journal, September 2015

  • Knutson, Thomas R.; Sirutis, Joseph J.; Zhao, Ming
  • Journal of Climate, Vol. 28, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0129.1

RegCM4: model description and preliminary tests over multiple CORDEX domains
journal, March 2012

  • Giorgi, F.; Coppola, E.; Solmon, F.
  • Climate Research, Vol. 52
  • DOI: 10.3354/cr01018

The HadGEM2-ES implementation of CMIP5 centennial simulations
journal, January 2011

  • Jones, C. D.; Hughes, J. K.; Bellouin, N.
  • Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 4, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.5194/gmd-4-543-2011

A Scheme for Representing Cumulus Convection in Large-Scale Models
journal, November 1991


Climatic Shift of the Tropical Cyclone Activity Affecting Vietnam’s Coastal Region
journal, October 2020

  • Tran-Quang, Duc; Pham-Thanh, Ha; Vu, The-Anh
  • Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Vol. 59, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1175/JAMC-D-20-0021.1

Improved Climate Simulation by MIROC5: Mean States, Variability, and Climate Sensitivity
journal, December 2010

  • Watanabe, Masahiro; Suzuki, Tatsuo; O’ishi, Ryouta
  • Journal of Climate, Vol. 23, Issue 23
  • DOI: 10.1175/2010JCLI3679.1

Rainfall from tropical cyclones: high-resolution simulations and seasonal forecasts
journal, September 2018


Extratropical cyclones and the projected decline of winter Mediterranean precipitation in the CMIP5 models
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

  • Reed, K. A.; Bacmeister, J. T.; Rosenbloom, N. A.
  • Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 42, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1002/2015GL063974

A Moist PBL Parameterization for Large-Scale Models and Its Application to Subtropical Cloud-Topped Marine Boundary Layers
journal, March 2001


A Technique for Combining Global Tropical Cyclone Best Track Data
journal, April 2010

  • Kruk, Michael C.; Knapp, Kenneth R.; Levinson, David H.
  • Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 27, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1175/2009JTECHA1267.1

On the Seasonal Forecasting of Regional Tropical Cyclone Activity
journal, November 2014


GPS Dropwindsonde Wind Profiles in Hurricanes and Their Operational Implications
journal, February 2003


Future changes in tropical cyclone activity in the North Indian Ocean projected by high-resolution MRI-AGCMs
journal, June 2012