Simulating the variability and physics of Atlantic Tropical

Cyclones with the Canadian RCM

Louis-Philippe Caron

and

Colin Jones

• Objectives: – Evaluate the benefit of increased resolution in TC simulation on

climate timescales.– Investigate the importance of simulating African waves, at high-

resolution, in the context of Atlantic TC variability.

• These goals will be achieved by using different possible configurations of GEM-Climate:– A global 2°resolution, typical of present-day GCMs.– Variable resolution, with high-resolution (0.3°) over the entire

tropical Atlantic TC track, while the rest of the global domain is kept at the equivalent resolution of the Global version of GEM (2°).

– Two different RCM configurations of GEM: the first utilizes a domain covering the same area and resolution as the high-resolution portion of the Global variable resolution simulation whilst the second, smaller RCM domain, covers only the tropical Atlantic.

Example of Variable Resolution Grid

• Relative monthly distribution of observed and simulated TCs for the period 1979-2006.

• Hurricane simulated in the Gulf of Mexico.

• TCs tracks produced by GEM during a given year.