Radiative cooling effect of Hurricane Florence in 2006 and precipitation of Typhoon Matsa in 2005

• Published in: Atmospheric Science Letters
• Main Authors: Liu, Quanhua, Weng, Fuzhong
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2009
• Subjects: Sea ice
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asl.219; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fasl.219; https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/asl.219

Abstract The increasing strength of tropical cyclones may be a response of the Earth's interaction between natural variability and human activities. Negative effects of the severe storms, such as flooding, landslides, damage to properties, and even a number of human casualties, have been reported many times. This study reported other aspects on Hurricanes and Typhoons, which may be beneficial to the world. We found that Hurricane Florence in 2006 decreased radiation energy by − 0.5 × 10 20 J to the Earth‐atmospheric system, about 10% of the annual global energy consumption. If the amount of energy uniformly distributes over the whole Earth surface and over 1‐year time, it corresponds to a power of − 0.003 W m −2 The total forcing power on climate change is 0.24 W m −2 , if we only take account for the stored fluxes in water, atmosphere, continents, and heat required to melt glaciers and sea ice. Thus, the shielding effect of solar radiation by tropical storms could contribute to ease global warming. In addition, hurricane and typhoon can ease drought sometimes. This study found that the total rainwater carried by Typhoon Matsa in August 2005 into China's inland amounts to about 135 billion tons. The rainfall over the northern China eased severe drought in summer 2005. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society