The relationship of tropical cyclone size with ENSO

Recently, two independent tropical cyclone size satellite-based datasets were developed, the first by Jonh Knaff and collaborators (Knaff et al. 2014) and the second by Daniel Chavas and collaborators (Chavas et al. 2015). Estimates of TC size are available for all basins for the period 1978-2013. The climatological characteristics of TC size show interesting properties, varying by basin, TC intensity and latitude. Here we further analyze these datasets, by considering the dependence of TC size with the phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in various basins. Preliminary results in the North Atlantic and western North Pacific, show that the TC size distributions in these basins are statistically significant distinct in El Niño and La Niña years and are basin dependent. Furthermore, these shifts in the TC size distribution are not the same for all types of storms, with different TC size distributions shifts with ENSO phase for tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes. In this talk, we will present our results of on how TC distributions in all basins vary with ENSO and TC characteristics, such as intensity, lifetime, latitude, and seasonality. The differences and similarities between the results of the 2 size datasets will also be discussed. References: Chavas, D.R., N. Lin, W. Dong, and Y. Lin, 2015: Observed tropical cyclone size revisited. In prep.Knaff, J.A., S.P. Longmore, and D.A. Molenar, 2014: An objective satellite-based tropical cyclone size climatology. J. Climate, 27, 455-476.