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An evaluation of global climate model-simulated tropical cyclone rainfall structures in the HighResMIP simulations against the satellite observations

Presentation Date
Tuesday, December 15, 2020 at 4:00am
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Abstract

This study evaluates tropical cyclone (TC) rainfall structures in the CMIP6 HighResMIP simulations against the satellite retrievals. Analysis of TC rainfall composites indicates that in comparison to the satellite retrievals at the same intensity, many HighResMIP simulations tend to overproduce the rain rates around TCs, in terms of the maximum and area-averaged rain rates. In addition, as model horizontal resolution increases, the peak rain rate appears to increase but the area-averaged rain rate decreases. Area-averaged TC rain rates increase with horizontal grid spacing, mainly due to the TC eyewall being located further away from the center, despite the rain rate decreasing faster outside the eyewall. Examination of horizontal rainfall distributions indicates that vertical wind shear-induced rainfall asymmetries in HighResMIP-simulated TCs are qualitatively consistent with the observations. Analysis results suggest that global climate models might need to generate more heating in order to produce a TC of the same intensity as observed.

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