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Future climate trends of subtropical cyclones in the South Atlantic basin in an ensemble of global and regional projections

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Abstract

The South Atlantic Ocean (SAO) is characterized by the development of different types of synoptic scale cyclones, which affect the weather and climate of South America. For the first time, we obtained the long term trend of subtropical cyclones (SCs) climatology over the SAO through two ensembles under RCP8.5 scenario. Regional Climate Model version 4 (RegCM4) projections were driven by three global climate models (GCMs) from CMIP5. SCs are obtained by applying three algorithms: (1) for tracking all cyclones based on relative vorticity; (2) to describe the thermal structure of the cyclones; and (3) for selecting only the SCs. Ensemble means are able to capture the main SCs characteristics shown by ERA-Interim reanalysis in the present climate (1979–2005), such as the main region of formation (near the southeastern Brazilian coast), track density, seasonality (higher frequency in austral summer) and lifetime (~ 3 days). The RegCM4 and GCMs ensembles project a negative and statistically significant trend in the frequency of SCs in the future climate (2050–2080) near the southeastern coast of Brazil. The projections also indicate a greater negative trend of SCs than for all cyclones. This would be a response to the future increase in the mean sea level pressure (expansion of South Atlantic subtropical anticyclone), which in turn leads to a change in the low-level circulation acting to decrease the moisture transport to the main region of SCs development. Though the SCs frequency will decrease in the future, they are projected to be more intense due to stronger convective forcing.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) Finance Code 001, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq Grants #430314/2018-3, #304949/2018-3, #420262/2018-0, #305304/2017-8, #306488/2020-5) and PETROBRAS (2017/00671-3) for financial support.

Funding

(a) Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). (b) Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). (c) PETROBRAS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ciências Atmosféricas, Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Eduardo Marcos de Jesus, Rosmeri Porfírio da Rocha & Natália Machado Crespo

  2. Instituto de Recursos Naturais, Universidade Federal de Itajubá, Itajubá, MG, Brazil

    Michelle Simões Reboita

  3. Bauru Meteorological Centre (IPMET), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Bauru, SP, Brazil

    Luiz Felippe Gozzo

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  1. Eduardo Marcos de Jesus
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  4. Michelle Simões Reboita
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  5. Luiz Felippe Gozzo
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Correspondence to Eduardo Marcos de Jesus.

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de Jesus, E.M., da Rocha, R.P., Crespo, N.M. et al. Future climate trends of subtropical cyclones in the South Atlantic basin in an ensemble of global and regional projections. Clim Dyn 58, 1221–1236 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-05958-8

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