DOI: 10.17604/n0dj-9a26
title: Idealized tropical cyclone simulations under dry environmental environment

description: This data set contains the idealized WRF simulations that was used to study the role of moisture-induced radiative heating in tropical cyclone genesis. The concept that radiative heating can provide substantial energy for tropical cyclone intensification has been identified in numerical simulations and been observed in satellite measurements. However, how the distribution of greenhouse gas affects the evolution of tropical cyclone genesis remains unclear.
The radiative heating and tropical cyclone information provided here can be used to estimate how the environmental moisture interacting radiation affects the tropical cyclone intensification. These data are associated with the article: Wu, S.-N., Soden, B., “Radiative Feedbacks from Dry Environmental Air Accelerate Tropical Cyclogenesis”
description: The provided analysis data are produced by Weather and Research Forecasting model (WRF) version 3.9. For the details regarding WRF, readers are referred to NCAR website (https://www.mmm.ucar.edu/models/wrf).

radiative_heating_free_troposphere.dat file contains atmospheric longwave convergence from WRF idealized simulations. The variable saved in this file can be accessed by Python Numpy package with the four dimensions of (initial_vortex_intensity: 5, time: 49, height: 60, radius: 101). The radial resolution is 6 km, and temporal resolution is 3-hour. The unit for the atmospheric longwave convergence is W/m2.

intensity_free_troposphere.dat contains the maximum wind of simulated tropical cyclone from WRF idealized simulations. The variable can be accessed by Python Numpy package with the three dimensions of (environmental relative humidity: 5, initial_vortex_intensity:5 , time: 49). The unit for the vertical wind is m/s.  

Ur_free_troposphere.dat file contains radial wind from WRF idealized simulations. The variable can be accessed by Python Numpy package with the four dimensions of (initial_vortex_intensity: 5, time: 49, height: 60, radius: 101). The radial resolution is 6 km, and temporal resolution is 3-hour. The unit for the radial wind is m/s.

W_free_troposphere.dat contains vertical wind from WRF idealized simulations. The variable can be accessed by Python Numpy package with the four dimensions of (initial_vortex_intensity: 5, time:49, height: 60, radius: 101). The radial resolution is 6 km, and temporal resolution is 3-hour. The unit for the vertical wind is m/s.

module_ra_rrtmg_lw.F is a modified version of the standard fortran script which runs rrtmg parametrization with homogenized longwave radiation in WRF. RRTM is a rapid radiative transfer model which utilizes the correlated-k approach to calculate fluxes and heating rates efficiently and accurately. The modification, which starts on line 11948, is to modify relative humidity outside tropical cyclone region. The original version is referenced to E. J. Mlawer, et al (2002); revision for GCMs is referred to Michael J. Iacono; October, 2002; and revision for F90 formatting is referred to Michael J. Iacono June 2006. The script will be automatically compiled during the compilation of WRF. This file should be placed under ./WRFV3/phys.

GRL_plot_radiative_heating.py file reads “Radiative_heating_free_troposphere.dat” and create the evolution of radiative heating for TC area and its environment for sensitivity experiments with different environmental moisture.

GRL_plot_intensity_evolution.py reads “Intensity_free_troposphere.dat” and create the evolution of TC intensity for sensitivity experiments with different initial vortex intensity and different environmental moisture.

The data provided above are specifically used with Weather and Research Forecasting model (WRF) 3.9.1 version, as initial files. For the details of installation and execution related to WRF, readers are referred to UCAR website (https://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users/download/get_sources.html). The simulation is executed using idealized simulations of "em_quarter_ss" in WRF, which essentially shares the same dynamical core as ""em_tropical_cyclone"". Performing "ideal.exe" to generate wrfinput_d01 and create an initial vortex with 7 m/s intensity. After duplicate the provided namelist.input to the corresponding directories in the expanded WRF directory (./WRF/...), compile the code and the model should be ready to run.

namelist.input is used to provide configuration parameters including parameterization schemes, which should be placed under ./WRFV3/run