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Distinct effects of anthropogenic aerosols on tropical cyclones

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 368–373 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Long-term observations have revealed large amplitude fluctuations in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones (TCs; refs 1, 2, 3, 4), but the anthropogenic impacts, including greenhouse gases and particulate matter pollution4,5, remain to be elucidated. Here, we show distinct aerosol effects on the development of TCs: the coupled microphysical and radiative effects of anthropogenic aerosols result in delayed development, weakened intensity and early dissipation, but an enlarged rainband and increased precipitation under polluted conditions. Our results imply that anthropogenic aerosols probably exhibit an opposite effect to that of greenhouse gases, highlighting the necessity of incorporating a realistic microphysical–radiative interaction of aerosols for accurate forecasting and climatic prediction of TCs in atmospheric models.

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Figure 1: Tropical cyclone temporal evolution.
Figure 2: Vertical–radial cross-sections of azimuthally averaged radar reflectivity.
Figure 3: Horizontal distribution of the equivalent potential temperature.
Figure 4: Schematic of the microphysical and radiative effects of anthropogenic aerosols on TCs.

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Acknowledgements

Y.W. was supported by a NASA graduate fellowship in Earth Sciences. R.Z. acknowledges support from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China under award number 2013CB955800. We thank K.A. Emanuel, P. Liss, C. Schumacher and F. Zhang for helpful discussions. Supercomputing computational facilities were provided by the Texas A&M University. Y.W. acknowledges additional support by the NASA ROSES COUND program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, Center for Atmospheric Chemistry and the Environment, College Station Texas 77843-3150, USA,

    Yuan Wang, Keun-Hee Lee, Yun Lin, Misti Levy & Renyi Zhang

  2. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, USA

    Yuan Wang

  3. Korean Meteorological Administration, Seoul 156-720, South Korea

    Keun-Hee Lee

  4. State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

    Renyi Zhang

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  1. Yuan Wang
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Contributions

K.L., Y.W. and R.Z. designed the research. K.L. and Y.W. conducted the research (performed the model simulations and analysed the data). Y.W., Y.L. and M.L. performed additional ensemble simulations and analysis. Y.W. and R.Z. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yuan Wang or Renyi Zhang.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Wang, Y., Lee, KH., Lin, Y. et al. Distinct effects of anthropogenic aerosols on tropical cyclones. Nature Clim Change 4, 368–373 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2144

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