A Global Climatology of Extratropical Transition. Part II: Statistical Performance of the Cyclone Phase Space ...

• Main Authors: Bieli, Melanie, Camargo, Suzana J., Sobel, Adam H., Evans, Jenni L., Hall, Timothy M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Columbia University 2019
• Subjects: Climatology; Cyclones; Classification; Pacific; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/d8-br32-dc32; https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-br32-dc32

This study analyzes the differences between an objective, automated identification of tropical cyclones (TCs) that undergo extratropical transition (ET), and the designation of ET determined subjectively by human forecasters in best track data in all basins globally. The objective identification of ET is based on the cyclone phase space (CPS), calculated from the Japanese 55-yr Reanalysis (JRA-55) or the ECMWF interim reanalysis (ERA-Interim). The resulting classification into ET storms and non-ET storms underlies the global climatology of ET presented in Part I of this study. Here, the authors investigate how well the CPS classifications agree with those in the best track records calculated from JRA-55 or from ERA-Interim data. According to F1 scores and Matthews correlation coefficients (MCCs), the classification of ET storms in the CPS agrees best with the best track classification in the western North Pacific (MCC > 0.7) and the North Atlantic (MCC > 0.5). In other basins, the correlation between ...