Statistical-Dynamical Forecasting of Tropical Cyclogenesis in the North Atlantic at Intraseasonal Lead Times

Abstract

We have created a combined statistical-dynamical model to predict the probability of tropical cyclone (TC) formation at daily, 2.5 degree horizontal resolution in the North Atlantic (NA) at intraseasonal lead times. Based on prior research and our own analyses, we chose five large-scale environmental factors (LSEFs) to represent favorable environments for TC formation. The LSEFs include 850 mb relative vorticity, sea surface temperature, vertical wind shear, Coriolis, and 200 mb divergence. We used logistic regression to create a statistical model that depicts the probability for TC formation based on these LSEFs. Through verification of zero-lead hindcasts, we determined that our regression model performs better than climatology. For example, these hindcasts had a Brier skill score of 0.04 and a relative operating characteristic skill score of 0.72. We then forced our regression model with LSEF fields from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Climate Forecast System (CFS) to produce non-zero lead hindcasts and forecasts. We conducted a series of case studies to evaluate and study the predictive skill of our regression model, with the results showing that our model produces promising results at intraseasonal lead times.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA501774

Entities

People

  • Chad S. Raynak

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Atmospheric Sciences
  • California
  • Case Studies
  • Climate
  • Climatology
  • Data Sets
  • Department Of Defense
  • Lead Time
  • Meteorology
  • Production Engineering
  • Sea Surface Temperature
  • Surface Temperature
  • Tropical Cyclones
  • United States
  • Wind
  • Wind Shear

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science/Meteorology
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation