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Process-oriented diagnosis of tropical cyclones in high-resolution GCMs

Cited 32 time in Web of Science Cited 31 time in Scopus
Authors

Kim, Daehyun; Moon, Yumin; Camargo, Suzana J.; Wing, Allison A.; Sobel, Adam H.; Murakami, Hiroyuki; Vecchi, Gabriel A.; Zhao, Ming; Page, Eric

Issue Date
2018-03
Publisher
American Meteorological Society
Citation
Journal of Climate, Vol.31 No.5, pp.1685-1702
Abstract
This study proposes a set of process-oriented diagnostics with the aim of understanding how model physics and numerics control the representation of tropical cyclones (TCs), especially their intensity distribution, in GCMs. Three simulations are made using two 50-km GCMs developed at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. The two models are forced with the observed sea surface temperature [Atmospheric Model version 2.5 (AM2.5) and High Resolution Atmospheric Model (HiRAM)], and in the third simulation, the AM2.5 model is coupled to an ocean GCM [Forecast-Oriented Low Ocean Resolution (FLOR)]. The frequency distributions of maximum near-surface wind near TC centers show that HiRAM tends to develop stronger TCs than the other models do. Large-scale environmental parameters, such as potential intensity, do not explain the differences between HiRAM and the other models. It is found that HiRAM produces a greater amount of precipitation near the TC center, suggesting that associated greater diabatic heating enables TCs to become stronger in HiRAM. HiRAMalso shows a greater contrast in relative humidity and surface latent heat flux between the inner and outer regions of TCs. Various fields are composited on precipitation percentiles to reveal the essential character of the interaction among convection, moisture, and surface heat flux. Results show that the moisture sensitivity of convection is higher in HiRAM than in the other model simulations. HiRAM also exhibits a stronger feedback from surface latent heat flux to convection via near-surface wind speed in heavy rain-rate regimes. The results emphasize that the moisture-convection coupling and the surface heat flux feedback are critical processes that affect the intensity of TCs in GCMs.
ISSN
0894-8755
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/10371/200979
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0269.1
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  • College of Natural Sciences
  • Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Research Area Climate Change, Earth & Environmental Data, Severe Weather, 기후과학, 위험기상, 지구환경 데이터과학

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