The Feedback of Cold Wakes on Tropical Cyclones
Name
Karnauskas_etal_2021.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
2.29 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Karnauskas, Kristopher B.
Zhang, Lei
Emanuel, Kerry Andrew
Date Issued
April 2021
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Citation
Karnauskas, Kristopher B. et al. "The Feedback of Cold Wakes on Tropical Cyclones." Geophysical Research Letters 48, 7 (April 2021): e2020GL091676. © 2021 American Geophysical Union
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Tropical cyclones (TCs) cause negative sea surface temperature anomalies by vertical mixing and other processes. Such cold wakes can cover substantial areas and persist for a month or longer. It has long been hypothesized that cold wakes left behind by intense TCs reduce the likelihood of subsequent TC development. Here, we combine satellite observations, a global atmospheric model, and a high-resolution TC downscaling model to test this hypothesis and examine the feedback of cold wakes on subsequent TC tracks and intensities. Overall, cold wakes reduce the frequency of weak to moderate events but increase the incidence of very intense events. There is large spatial heterogeneity in the TC response, such as a southward shift of track density in response to cold wakes similar to that generated by Florence (2018). Cold wakes may be important for modeling and forecasting TCs, interpreting historical records and understanding feedbacks in a changing climate.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl091676
