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Is cumulus convection the concertmaster of tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic?
Author(s) -
Stan Cristiana
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2012gl053449
Subject(s) - tropical cyclone , climatology , tropical cyclogenesis , troposphere , wind shear , tropical cyclone rainfall forecasting , environmental science , cyclone (programming language) , atlantic hurricane , tropical atlantic , convection , climate model , atmospheric sciences , tropical cyclone scales , sea surface temperature , african easterly jet , wind speed , meteorology , climate change , geology , tropical wave , oceanography , geography , field programmable gate array , computer science , computer hardware
The influence of the cloud representation in global climate models on the accuracy of the North Atlantic tropical cyclone simulations is investigated. The North Atlantic tropical cyclone activity is simulated with a standard climate model, CCSM. The conventional parameterization of cloud processes in CCSM is replaced by the “super‐parameterization” and the simulation is run again. The comparison of tropical cyclone statistics reveals that the model with explicit representation of cloud processes produces a larger number of events, with stronger intensity and longer life‐cycle. The results show that clouds have a significant impact on the mechanisms associated with tropical cyclone activity such as surface temperature and ocean subsurface processes, vertical wind shear, and the transport of moisture in the lower troposphere.