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Correlation between sea-level rise and aspects of future tropical cyclone activity in CMIP6 models
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  • Joseph Lockwood,
  • Michael Oppenheimer,
  • Ning Lin,
  • Robert E Kopp,
  • Gabriel Vecchi,
  • Avantika Gori
Joseph Lockwood
Princeton University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Michael Oppenheimer
Princeton U
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Ning Lin
Princeton University
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Robert E Kopp
Rutgers University
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Gabriel Vecchi
Princeton University
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Avantika Gori
Princeton University
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Abstract

Future coastal flood hazard at many locations will be impacted by both tropical cyclone (TC) change and relative sea-level rise (SLR). Despite sea level and TC activity being influenced by common thermodynamic and dynamic climate variables, their future changes are generally considered independently. Here, we investigate correlations between SLR and TC change derived from simulations of 26 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) models. We first explore correlations between SLR and TC activity by inference from two large‑scale factors known to modulate TC activity: potential intensity (PI) and vertical wind shear. Under the high emissions SSP5-8.5, SLR is strongly correlated with PI change (positively) and vertical wind shear change (negatively) over much of the western North Atlantic and North West Pacific. To explore the impact of the joint changes on flood hazard, we then conduct climatologyhydrodynamic modeling with New York City (NYC) as an example. Coastal flood hazard at NYC correlates strongly with global mean surface air temperature (GSAT), due to joint increases in both sea level and TC storm surges, the later driven by stronger and more slowly moving TCs. If positive correlations between SLR and TC changes are ignored in estimating flood hazard, the average projected change to the historical 100 year storm tide event is under-estimated by 0.09 m (7%) and the range across CMIP6 models is underestimated by 0.17 m (11 %). Our results suggest that flood hazard assessments that neglect the joint influence of these factors and that do not reflect the full distribution of GSAT changes will not accurately represent future flood hazard.
Apr 2022Published in Earth's Future volume 10 issue 4. 10.1029/2021EF002462