Uncertainties Inherent from Large-Scale Climate Projections in the Statistical Downscaling Projection of North Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Activity

Abstract

North Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) activity under a high-emission scenario is projected using a statistical synthetic storm model coupled with nine phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) climate models. The ensemble projection shows that the annual frequency of TCs generated in the basin will decrease from 15.91 (1979–2014) to 12.16 (2075–2100), and TC activity will shift poleward and coastward. The mean of lifetime maximum intensity will increase from 66.50 to 75.04 kt (1 kt’ 0.51 m s21). Large discrepancies in TC frequency and intensity projections are found among the nine CMIP6 climate models. The uncertainty in the projection of wind shear is the leading cause of the discrepancies in the TC climatology projection, dominating the uncertainties in the projection of thermodynamic parameters such as potential intensity and saturation deficit. The uncertainty in the projection of wind shear may be related to the different projections of horizontal gradient of vertically integrated temperature in the climate models, which can be induced by different parameterizations of physical processes including surface process, sea ice, and cloud feedback. Informed by the uncertainty analysis, a surrogate model is developed to provide the first-order estimation of TC activity in climate models based on large-scale environmental features.