Journal article

Real world and tropical cyclone world. Part II: Sensitivity of tropical cyclone formation to uniform and meridionally varying sea surface temperatures under aquaplanet conditions

KJE Walsh, S Sharmila, M Thatcher, S Wales, S Utembe, A Vaughan

Journal of Climate | AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC | Published : 2020

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the response of simulated tropical cyclone formation to specific climate conditions, using an idealized aquaplanet framework of an;40-km-horizontal-resolution atmospheric general circulation model. Two sets of idealized model experiments have been performed, one with a set of uniformly distributed constant global sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and another in which varying meridional SST gradients are imposed. The results show that the strongest relationship between climate and tropical cyclone formation is with vertical static stability: increased static stability is strongly associated with decreased tropical cyclone formation. Vertical wind shear and midtrop..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council


Funding Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge discussions with Ian Simmonds and the comments of four anonymous reviewers. The authors thank the Australian Research Council for funding this work under Discovery Project DP15012272. Author Sharmila acknowledges present support from the Northern Australia Climate Program at the University of Southern Queensland/Bureau of Meteorology, Australia. The climate model used in this study was supplied by the ACCESS modelling team, with the support of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science. Author Vaughan acknowledges past support from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science. The simulations and analyses were performed on the National Computational Infrastructure system, supported by the Australian Government. Figures are prepared using the free software NCL and Python. Model output from these simulations is available for analysis by contacting the corresponding author.