Visualizing Storms from NCAR's Atmosphere Model

Global warming will likely change the statistics of tropical cyclones and hurricanes. In this high resolution simulation, using the finite volume version of NCAR's Community Atmosphere Model, we are studying how well the model can reproduced observed tropical cyclone statistics. The simulated storms seen in this animation are generated spontaneously from the model's simulated weather conditions long after the memory of initial conditions have been forgotten. The structure of these simulated tropical cyclones is surprisingly realistic with the strongest storms rating as Category 4 on the Sapphir-Simpson scale. The animated field is the total vertical column integrated water vapor. Acknowledgements: data provided by Michael Wehner (LBNL). Visualizaiton by Prabhat (LBNL).