| Abstract: Hurricanes can inflict catastrophic property damage
and loss of human life. Thus, it is important to determine how the character
of these powerful storms could change in response to greenhouse gas-induced
global warming. The impact of climate warming on hurricane intensities
was investigated with a regional, high-resolution, hurricane prediction
model. In a case study, 51 western Pacific storm cases under present-day
climate conditions were compared with 51 storm cases under high-CO2
conditions. More idealized experiments were also performed. The large-scale
initial conditions were derived from a global climate model. For a sea
surface temperature warming of about 2.2°C, the simulations yielded
hurricanes that were more intense by 3 to 7 meters per second (5 to 12
percent) for wind speed and 7 to 20 millibars for central surface pressure. |