Tropical cyclone frequencies
Figure 1 shows the horizontal distributions of normalized TC genesis density for IBTrACS, JRA-55, ERA-I, and each model. Except in NCM014, this density was defined as the number of TCs per year generated in a 5° × 5° grid box between 1990 and 2014. In NCM014, the period spanned from 2000 to 2009. Each model represented a broadly realistic geographical distribution compared with IBTrACS (Fig. 1a), although most models showed fewer or more annual TC genesis frequencies than that of the best track. With the exception of NCM056 (Fig. 1o), the lowest resolution version of each model underestimated global annual mean TC genesis frequency (Fig. 1d, f, h, j, and l). In general, the frequencies in the higher-resolution versions were increased (Fig. 1e, g, i, k, m, n, p, and q) compared with (i) the lower-resolution versions (Fig. 1d, f, h, j, l, and o) and (ii) the results of Roberts et al. (2019b). With the settings used in this study, TempestExtremes showed little discrepancy in global annual mean genesis frequency between MRI020 and IBTrACS, which may leave room for improvement in terms of applying TempestExtremes to the other models. This will complicate inter-model comparison, which is outside the scope of the present study.
Figure 2 shows the interannual variability of the normalized annual TC genesis frequency for IBTrACS, ERA-I, JRA-55, and multi-models (except for NCM014). Since global annual TC genesis frequencies substantially varied between the models and their horizontal resolutions (Fig. 1), we normalized the annual TC genesis frequencies of the models, ERA-I, JRA-55, and IBTrACS based on their mean values from 1990 to 2014 for the respective data. Table 2 shows the Spearman’s rank correlation of each model and reanalyses with IBTrACS during the period in which available period of IBTrACS overlapped Tier 1 period; i.e., 1980–2014. There were no significant positive correlations between the multi-model ensemble (MME) and IBTrACS for TC genesis frequency in either hemisphere or the entire globe. As for the individual models, some models showed weak or moderate correlations, which appeared to increase with decreasing horizontal grid interval in some models. However, we should not regard this impact of horizontal resolution as an improvement. Roberts et al (2019) noted that a single member of a model is insufficient for evaluating the impact of horizontal resolution on interannual variability. They suggested that at least six members are required.
Table 2
Spearman's rank correlations between TC genesis frequencies in HighResMIP multi models and in reanalyses, and IBTrACS. Spearman's rank correlations were calculated from 1980 to 2014. An asterisk indicates that a correlation is statistically significant at the 90% confidence level (at least). P-values are indicated in parentheses.
Model/Analysis | Globe | Northern Hemisphere | Southern Hemisphere |
CNRM156 | 0.067 (0.704) | 0.016 (0.928) | −0.151 (0.386) |
CNRM055 | *0.292 (0.088) | *0.307 (0.073) | 0.053 (0.764) |
EC078 | 0.211 (0.224) | 0.116 (0.506) | −0.003 (0.987) |
EC039 | 0.049 (0.781) | 0.001 (0.996) | −0.096 (0.582) |
MPI100 | 0.193 (0.268) | 0.110 (0.528) | −0.262 (0.129) |
MPI052 | −0.142 (0.415) | −0.093 (0.596) | *−0.334 (0.050) |
MRI060 | 0.044 (0.800) | 0.179 (0.304) | −0.257 (0.136) |
MRI020 | 0.069 (0.695) | −0.054 (0.759) | −0.197 (0.256) |
HG208 | 0.071 (0.683) | 0.164 (0.346) | 0.187 (0.282) |
HG093 | −0.104 (0.551) | 0.116 (0.507) | *−0.381 (0.024) |
HG039 | 0.232 (0.180) | 0.221 (0.202) | 0.137 (0.431) |
NCM056 | *0.371 (0.028) | *0.421 (0.012) | −0.096 (0.583) |
NCM028 | *0.481 (0.003) | 0.219 (0.206) | 0.259 (0.133) |
MME mean | 0.106 (0.545) | 0.117 (0.504) | −0.231 (0.182) |
MME median | 0.151 (0.386) | 0.088 (0.613) | *−0.290 (0.091) |
JRA-55 | *0.624 (< 0.001) | *0.354 (0.037) | *0.823 (< 0.001) |
ERA-I | 0.252 (0.145) | *0.354 (0.037) | 0.055 (0.755) |
JRA-55 showed a statistically significant correlation with IBTrACS for the entire globe (correlation coefficient: 0.62, p-value: 6.1 × 10− 5) and for the Southern Hemisphere (correlation coefficient: 0.82, p-value: 1.3 × 10− 9). JRA-55 well captures the interannual variability of the observed TC genesis frequency. As Murakami (2014) suggested, JRA-55 properly represents the interannual variation of TC frequency, which encourages the use of JRA-55 in the present study.
As for future changes in TC genesis frequency due to global warming, after 2039, approximately 75% of the models projected a decrease in the global TC genesis frequency compared with their mean value between 1990 and 2014 (Fig. 2a). Consistent with Roberts et al. (2019c), the decreasing trend was clear in the Southern Hemisphere (Fig. 2c), whereas the trend in the Northern Hemisphere was somewhat vague (Fig. 2b).
Table 3 summarizes the trends in TC genesis frequency from 1990 to 2049 for the individual models. Except for MPI100, MPI052, and HG039, the models projected a decreasing trend in global TC frequency. These decreasing trends were statistically significant at the 90% confidence level (at least) for CNRM055, MRI060, MRI020, NCM056, and NCM028. The increasing trends in MPI100, MPI052, and HG039 were not statistically significant. As a result, the MME mean and median showed a statistically significant decreasing trend with at the 90% confidence level (at least).
Table 3
Trends in TC genesis, TC seed frequency, and survival rate (SR). Trends were calculated from 1990 to 2049. An asterisk indicates that a trend is statistically significant at the 90% confidence level (at least) with the nonparametric Mann–Kendal test. P-values are indicated in parentheses.
Model | TC genesis | Seed | SR |
CNRM156 | −0.09 (0.298) | *−0.22 (0.014) | 0.08 (0.342) |
CNRM055 | *-0.21 (0.016) | *−0.32 (< 0.001) | 0.10 (0.241) |
EC078 | −0.11 (0.234) | −0.09 (0.287) | −0.07 (0.403) |
EC039 | −0.10 (0.280) | −0.11 (0.207) | −0.04 (0.660) |
MPI100 | 0.01 (0.913) | 0.12 (0.170) | −0.05 (0.583) |
MPI052 | 0.08 (0.397) | −0.10 (0.246) | *0.19 (0.030) |
MRI060 | *−0.18 (0.045) | *−0.18 (0.046) | 0.04 (0.619) |
MRI020 | *−0.19 (0.030) | *−0.32 (< 0.001) | 0.14 (0.104) |
HG208 | −0.03 (0.725) | −0.02 (0.818) | −0.04 (0.642) |
HG093 | −0.14 (0.115) | *−0.18 (0.042) | 0.01 (0.914) |
HG039 | 0.04 (0.687) | −0.11 (0.235) | *0.16 (0.065) |
NCM056 | *−0.27 (0.003) | *−0.28 (0.001) | −0.08 (0.355) |
NCM028 | *−0.28 (0.001) | *−0.26 (0.003) | *−0.24 (0.006) |
MME mean | *−0.15 (0.093) | *−0.23 (0.010) | 0.01 (0.944) |
MME median | *−0.19 (0.034) | *−0.27 (0.003) | 0.06 (0.536) |
Figure 3 shows the spatial distributions of fractional change in TC genesis density. Although the spatial distribution of future change differs between models, Fig. 3 represents some similar characteristics among models, which might reflect their responses to a specific external condition such as SST. For instance, in most models, TC genesis frequency becomes more active near the west coast of Africa, the west coast of North America, the north-west coast of Australia, and Madagascar. On the other hand, TC activity becomes inactive over the central South Pacific, the central Indian Ocean, and the west side of the date line. These decreases in TC genesis in the decreasing regions negated the increases in the increasing regions, which may induce the decreasing trend (Fig. 2).
TC seed frequencies
The time series of normalized annual TC seed frequency is seen in Fig. 4. Inter-model variability in the annual TC seed frequency appeared to be smaller than that of annual TC frequency (Fig. 2). This may be attributed to the fact that internal atmospheric variability strongly affects TC activity (Patricola et al., 2016; Yamada et al., 2019). TC seed frequency in the MME median had a significant positive correlation with that of JRA-55 over the Northern Hemisphere and a significantly negative correlation over the Southern Hemisphere. The TC frequency in JRA-55 strongly correlated with that of IBTrACS (R = 0.624; Table 2). Therefore, we calculated the correlation coefficients between each model and JRA-55. The annual global TC seed frequencies of the MME median and mean did not correlate with those of JRA-55 as well as did TC genesis frequency. As for the individual models, correlation coefficients between each model and JRA-55 are listed in Table 4. NCM028 showed a moderate positive correlation with JRA-55 across the globe (0.49) and in the Northern Hemisphere (0.46), whereas CNRM055, MRI060, and NCM056 did so only in the Northern Hemisphere (0.35, 0.31, and 0.38, respectively). MPI100, MPI052, and HG093 showed moderate negative correlations in the Southern Hemisphere (− 0.46, − 0.51, and − 0.33, respectively). MPI100 also showed a moderate negative correlation across the globe (− 0.38).
Table 4
Spearman's rank correlations between TC seed frequencies in HighResMIP multi models and in JRA-55. Spearman's rank correlations were calculated from 1980 to 2014. An asterisk indicates that a correlation is statistically significant at the 90% confidence level (at least). P-values are indicated in parentheses.
Model | Globe | Northern Hemisphere | Southern Hemisphere |
CNRM156 | 0.145 (0.406) | 0.133 (0.445) | −0.024 (0.891) |
CNRM055 | 0.233 (0.178) | *0.345 (0.042) | 0.038 (0.828) |
EC078 | −0.029 (0.869) | 0.070 (0.689) | −0.164 (0.346) |
EC039 | −0.054 (0.756) | −0.021 (0.906) | −0.167 (0.338) |
MPI100 | *−0.381 (0.024) | −0.033 (0.852) | *−0.457 (0.006) |
MPI052 | −0.258 (0.135) | 0.014 (0.937) | *−0.506 (0.002) |
MRI060 | 0.190 (0.274) | *0.309 (0.071) | −0.130 (0.455) |
MRI020 | 0.065 (0.711) | 0.231 (0.182) | −0.117 (0.502) |
HG208 | 0.225 (0.194) | 0.264 (0.125) | 0.192 (0.268) |
HG093 | −0.063 (0.717) | 0.197 (0.257) | *−0.328 (0.055) |
HG039 | 0.111 (0.527) | 0.263 (0.126) | −0.154 (0.377) |
NCM056 | 0.243 (0.159) | *0.379 (0.025) | 0.132 (0.451) |
NCM028 | *0.490 (0.003) | *0.456 (0.006) | 0.259 (0.133) |
MME mean | 0.015 (0.934) | 0.221 (0.202) | *−0.326 (0.056) |
MME median | 0.069 (0.694) | *0.333 (0.050) | *−0.303 (0.077) |
As for the trend in TC seed frequency, the mean and median values of MME showed statistically significant decreasing trends at the 90% level (at least) across the globe (Table 3). These decreasing trends were seen in both hemispheres (Fig. 4). The decreasing trend in global TC seed frequency was consistent with that of TC genesis frequency; i.e., the sign of the trends in TCs and seeds coincided with each other. As for the individual models, trends were consistent between TC and seed frequency for all models except MPI052 and HG039. In the cases of MPI052 and HG039, SR might overwhelm the decrease in TC seed frequency.
To examine the consistency of the horizontal distribution between future fractional changes in the frequencies of TC genesis and TC seeds, Fig. 5 shows the geographical distributions of future changes in TC seed frequency. For each model, the geographical distributions of TC seed frequency were analogous to those in TC genesis frequency for the respective model (Figs. 3 and 5).
The behavior of TC seed frequency was similar to that of TC genesis frequency in terms of time series and horizontal distribution. This suggests that TC seed frequency contributed to TC genesis frequency.
Survival rate
We considered the ratio of TC frequency to TC seed frequency as the SR (Eq. 1). The SR varied interannually as well as TC genesis and its seed frequencies (data not shown). Table 3 summarizes the trend in the SR for each model. The SR showed statistically significant increasing trends at the 90% confidence level (at least) for MPI052 and HG039, and a decreasing trend for NCM028. The other models did not show statistically significant trends. The trends in SR showed the opposite sign to those of TC genesis frequency in CNRM156, CNRM055, MPI100, MRI060, MRI020, HG093, and HG039, although the trends between them showed the same sign in EC078, EC039, MPI052, HG208, NCM056, and NCM028. These results suggest that the change in TC frequency is associated with both TC seed frequency and SR, with the dominant factor depending on the model. In the following subsection, we quantify the relationships between TC genesis frequency, TC seed frequency, and SR.
Relationships between each parameter
To quantify the relationships between annual TC genesis frequency, seed frequency, and SR, Table 5 lists the correlation coefficients between these three parameters from 1950 to 2049. As for TC genesis and its seed frequency, CNRM-CM6, EC-Earth3P, MRI-AGCM3, HadGEM3-GC3.1, and NICAM.16-S showed strong, statistically significant correlations (greater than 0.7) at the 99.9% confidence level, whereas MPI-ESM1.2 showed only a moderate correlation (0.65). Correlations for single models were almost unchanged for different horizontal resolutions. In the reanalyses, the correlation coefficients were strong (0.87 for JRA-55 and 0.86 for ERA-I). In addition, TC genesis frequency in IBTrACS showed a moderate correlation with TC seed frequency which is substitution from JRA-55. These findings suggest that TC seed frequency strongly affects TC genesis frequency.
Table 5
Spearman's rank correlations between TC genesis frequency, TC seed frequency, and survival rate (SR) in each model and reanalysis. Spearman's rank correlations between the three parameters (TC, seed, and SR) were calculated from 1950 to 2049 for models except for NCM014, and from 1980 to 2014 for JRA-55, ERA-I, and IBTrACS. The TC seed of IBTrACS was substituted by that of JRA-55. The correlation in NCM014 was calculated during the periods for which the data are available: 1950–1960, 2000–2009, and 2040–2049. An asterisk indicates that a correlation is statistically significant at the 90% confidence level (at least). P-values are indicated in parentheses.
Model/Analysis | Seed vs. TC | SR vs. TC | Seed vs. SR |
CNRM156 | *0.80 (< 0.001) | *0.64 (< 0.001) | 0.08 (0.428) |
CNRM055 | *0.79 (< 0.001) | *0.33 (0.001) | *−0.24 (0.015) |
EC078 | *0.79 (< 0.001) | *0.75 (< 0.001) | *0.24 (0.015) |
EC039 | *0.83 (< 0.001) | *0.63 (< 0.001) | 0.14 (0.152) |
MPI100 | *0.65 (< 0.001) | *0.84 (< 0.001) | *0.18 (0.080) |
MPI052 | *0.65 (< 0.001) | *0.75 (< 0.001) | 0.03 (0.734) |
MRI060 | *0.81 (< 0.001) | *0.48 (< 0.001) | −0.08 (0.414) |
MRI020 | *0.77 (< 0.001) | *0.43 (< 0.001) | *−0.17 (0.083) |
HG208 | *0.75 (< 0.001) | *0.80 (< 0.001) | *0.25 (0.011) |
HG093 | *0.78 (< 0.001) | *0.67 (< 0.001) | 0.12 (0.247) |
HG039 | *0.80 (< 0.001) | *0.60 (< 0.001) | 0.06 (0.553) |
NCM056 | *0.91 (< 0.001) | *0.69 (< 0.001) | *0.35 (< 0.001) |
NCM028 | *0.80 (< 0.001) | *0.76 (< 0.001) | *0.26 (0.008) |
NCM014 | *0.91 (< 0.001) | *0.74 (< 0.001) | *0.42 (0.019) |
JRA55 | *0.87 (< 0.001) | *0.37 (0.030) | −0.08 (0.664) |
ERA-I | *0.86 (< 0.001) | *0.65 (< 0.001) | *0.29 (0.093) |
IBTrACS | *0.57 (< 0.001) | 0.03 (0.847) | *−0.77 (< 0.001) |
In terms of TC genesis frequency and SR, EC078, MPI-ESM1.2, HG208, NCM028, and NCM014 showed strong, statistically significant correlations (greater than 0.7) at the 99.9% confidence level. CNRM156, EC039, MRI-AGCM3, HG093, HG039, and NICAM056 showed moderate correlations (0.4–0.7) at the 99.0% confidence level (at least). CNRM055 showed a weak correlation (0.33). Differing from TC seed, the correlation of SR with TC frequency in CNRM-CM6 varied substantially between horizontal resolutions. In the reanalyses, JRA-55 showed a weak correlation (0.37), whereas ERA-I showed a strong correlation (0.65). In IBTrACS, there was no significant correlation. Most models and reanalyses showed that TC seed frequency exhibited a stronger relation to TC genesis than to SR (except for MPI-ESM1.2 and HG208).
On the other hand, TC seed frequency and SR show generally weaker correlations compared with other pairs of parameters. This indicates that SR may be independent of TC seed frequency.