Green Options › Forums › Climate Change › Science › Converging science
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Converging science

post #1 of 2
Thread Starter 
Generally in science, when several different groups all start converging on a similar conclusion using different methods, that indicates the conclusion is likely to be true.  This situation is emerging in the relationship between tropical cyclones and global warming. 

Fewer storms, but the storms we do get will be on average larger.

http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2010/2010GL042518.shtml

Projection of changes in tropical cyclone activity and cloud height due to greenhouse warming: Global cloud-system-resolving approach
 

Yohei Yamada, Kazuyoshi Oouchi, Masaki Satoh, Hirofumi Tomita, Wataru Yanase


Abstract:  Tropical cyclone (TC) activity change due to global warming (GW) has been investigated using general circulation models. However, they involve uncertainty in treating the ensemble effects of deep convections. Here we sidestep such uncertainty by using a global cloud-system-resolving model (GCRM) and assess TC changes with a time-slice experiment for the present-day and future GW experiments spanning 5 months each. The results support the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report; reduction in global frequency but increase in more intense TCs. Consistent with recent studies, frequency is reduced over the North Atlantic due to intensified vertical wind shear. Over the Pacific, frequency is almost unchanged and the genesis location shifts eastward under the prescribed El-Niño like sea surface temperature change. With the GCRM's advantage of representing mesoscale properties, we find that the cloud height becomes taller for more intense TCs and that this relationship is strengthened with GW.

post #2 of 2
Yeah I've seen a couple of studies with that same conclusion of fewer, but more intense hurricanes as the planet warms.  There was one from NOAA in 2008, and another in January 2010, although from mostly the same authors.
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Science
Green Options › Forums › Climate Change › Science › Converging science