TY - JOUR
T1 - Enlarging Rainfall Area of Tropical Cyclones by Atmospheric Aerosols
AU - Zhao, Chuanfeng
AU - Lin, Yanluan
AU - Wu, Fang
AU - Wang, Yang
AU - Li, Zhanqing
AU - Rosenfeld, Daniel
AU - Wang, Yuan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
©2018. The Authors.
PY - 2018/8/28
Y1 - 2018/8/28
N2 - The size of a tropical cyclone (TC), measured by the area of either rainfall or wind, is an important indicator for the potential damage by TC. Modeling studies suggested that aerosols tend to enhance rainfall in the outer rainbands, which enlarges the eyewall radius and expands the extent of rainfall area. However, no observational evidence has yet been reported. Using TC rainfall area and aerosol optical depth (AOD) data, we find that aerosols have a distinguishable footprint in the TC size. Other dynamical factors for TC size, such as relative SST and Coriolis parameter, are also quantified and discussed. We show that, on average, TC rainfall size increases 9–20 km for each 0.1 increase of AOD in the western North Pacific. This finding implies that anthropogenic aerosol pollution can increase not only TC rainfall rate, but also TC rainfall area, resulting in potentially more destructive flooding affecting larger areas.
AB - The size of a tropical cyclone (TC), measured by the area of either rainfall or wind, is an important indicator for the potential damage by TC. Modeling studies suggested that aerosols tend to enhance rainfall in the outer rainbands, which enlarges the eyewall radius and expands the extent of rainfall area. However, no observational evidence has yet been reported. Using TC rainfall area and aerosol optical depth (AOD) data, we find that aerosols have a distinguishable footprint in the TC size. Other dynamical factors for TC size, such as relative SST and Coriolis parameter, are also quantified and discussed. We show that, on average, TC rainfall size increases 9–20 km for each 0.1 increase of AOD in the western North Pacific. This finding implies that anthropogenic aerosol pollution can increase not only TC rainfall rate, but also TC rainfall area, resulting in potentially more destructive flooding affecting larger areas.
KW - aerosol optical depth
KW - rainfall area
KW - rainfall intensity
KW - Tropical cyclone
KW - western North Pacific
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052943673&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1029/2018GL079427
DO - 10.1029/2018GL079427
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AN - SCOPUS:85052943673
SN - 0094-8276
VL - 45
SP - 8604
EP - 8611
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
IS - 16
ER -