Examinations on global changes in the total and spatial extent of tropical cyclone precipitation relating to rapid intensification

Xuezhi Tan; Yaxin Liu; Xinxin Wu; Bingjun Liu; Xiaohong Chen

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158555

Examinations on global changes in the total and spatial extent of tropical cyclone precipitation relating to rapid intensification

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Dec 20:853:158555. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158555. Epub 2022 Sep 6.

Authors

Xuezhi Tan¹, Yaxin Liu², Xinxin Wu², Bingjun Liu³, Xiaohong Chen²

Affiliations

¹ Center of Water Resources and Environment, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, PR China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai 519082, PR China; School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, PR China. Electronic address: tanxuezhi@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
² Center of Water Resources and Environment, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, PR China; School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, PR China.
³ Center of Water Resources and Environment, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, PR China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai 519082, PR China; School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, PR China.

PMID: 36075425
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158555

Abstract

Moderate tropical cyclone precipitation (TCP) is of great significance to regional water resource supply, while extreme TCP could bring significant adverse impacts to ecosystems and society, especially when tropical cyclones intensify rapidly, leaving no time to take prevention actions. Whether rapid intensification (RI) of tropical cyclones (TCs) affect TCP in both land and ocean remains unknown. Here we classified TCs which have undergone increases in the maximum sustained wind speed (MSW) by at least 30 knots within 24-h into RI category. We analyzed TCP totals provided by daily precipitation from Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks-Climate Data Record (PERSIANN-CDR) and spatial extent from 1983 to 2019 in the four categories based on regions (land and ocean) and RI-experiencing characteristics (with- and without-RI). TCP totals and spatial extent was identified by the restricted moving neighborhood method and semi-variogram framework. The results show that TCP totals on the ocean are larger than those on the land, since RI-experiencing TCP are higher than TCP without RI-experiencing, although RI processes tend to increase TCP totals in the extremely high percentiles more significantly on land than ocean. The effects of RI processes on global TCP spatial extent are not statistically significant, and there are no definite relations between MSW and TCP spatial extent. The four regions of the Northeast Pacific Ocean (EP), South Pacific Ocean (SP), Northwest Pacific Ocean (WP), and North Atlantic Ocean (NA) show increases in regional mean and extreme TCP totals. The highest increase in the extreme TCP totals (0.37 mm day^-1 year^-1) over the NA region occurs in the RI_ocean category, which is 2.6 times the average positive enhancement trend across all basins. The increasing rate of the extreme TCP totals over the WP region is higher in track points with RI-experiencing than without RI-experiencing. The category of RI_land over the regions of NA, EP and SP shows a significant increase in the regional mean TCP spatial extent.

Keywords: Extreme precipitation; Rapid intensification; Spatial extent; Tropical cyclone precipitation.

MeSH terms

Atlantic Ocean
Climate
Cyclonic Storms*
Ecosystem
Wind