The Hurricane—Climate Connection
Open accessAbstract
Tropical cyclone activity has long been understood to respond to changing properties of the large-scale atmospheric and oceanic environment. In this essay, evidence for changing tropical cyclone activity is reviewed, and the controversy surrounding the quality of the data itself and the attribution of these environmental changes to various natural and anthropogenic causes, is discussed. At the same time, there is growing evidence that global tropical cyclone activity may itself affect climate in such a way as to mitigate tropical climate change but amplify climate change at higher latitudes. This evidence is reviewed, and possible routes forward in exploring these effects are suggested.
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Before satellite monitoring became routine in the late 1970s, tropical cyclones were prone to be missed if they were not observed through landfall, a ship, or airplane reconnaissance.
“However, before satellite monitoring became routine in the late 1970s, tropical cyclones were prone to be missed if they were not observed through landfall, a ship, or airplane reconnaissance.13,14”
From A Big Data Guide to Understanding Climate Change: The Case for Theory-Guided Data Science (2014) · cites this paper as [13]
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A Big Data Guide to Understanding Climate Change: The Case for Theory-Guided Data Science
Faghmous, J. H., & Kumar, V. (2014) · Big Data · doi:10.1089/big.2014.0026 · Cited by 223 · see citing works
- Authors
- Emanuel, K.
- Affiliations
- Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, Massachusetts Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Corresponding author
- Emanuel, Kerry
- ORCID
- Emanuel, Kerry
- Venue
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
- Publisher
- American Meteorological Society
- Published
- 2008-05
- Volume
- 89
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- ES10-ES20
- ISSN
- 0003-0007 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-0477
- OpenAlex
- W2125442463
- Cited by
- 175
- References
- 92
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 6.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0432090)
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Office of Science
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones Research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate Change and Environmental Impact
- Keywords
- tropical cyclones, hurricanes, climate change, data quality, anthropogenic climate change attribution, natural climate variability, tropical climate change
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