Rise in Stratospheric Water Vapor over the Past Two Decades: An Association with Tropical Atlantic Sea Surface Temperature

Major role for internal variability in tropical Pacific warming pattern over satellite era.

Home to El Niño, the tropical Pacific is a key player in the global climate system. While most of the planet has warmed during the satellite era of 1982-2024, the eastern tropical Pacific surface has mysteriously cooled. What is troubling is that fully coupled global climate models mostly fail to simulate this distinct...

Impact of Upper‐Level Warming on Tropical Cyclone Intensity

Deep convection from tropical cyclones (TCs) can reach the height of the tropopause and as such an interaction between the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere is likely to occur. Such interactions have been reported in both numerical and observational studies, mainly showing that subsidence from the stratosphere i...

Freshwater‐Induced Surface Cooling of the Subpolar North Atlantic in a Large‐Ensemble, High‐Resolution, Coupled Model

As a gateway between the Arctic and subtropics, the subpolar North Atlantic plays a key role in large‐scale climate variability. In recent decades, the region has experienced pronounced freshening. While much attention has been paid to the expected long‐term weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation,...

Upper-Tropospheric Water-Vapor Profiles Steepen With Sea Surface Temperature and Turn Near 303 K Over Tropical Oceans

Upper-tropospheric water vapor strongly influences tropical longwave cooling, but many observational benchmarks do not test how moisture is partitioned vertically. This study evaluates whether the contrast between two upper-tropospheric layers changes systematically with local sea-surface temperature (SST). Aura Microw...

Climate Variations of Autumn Tropical Cyclone Genesis in the Western North Pacific: Roles of Tropical and Midlatitude SST Anomalies

Tropical cyclones (TCs) in the western North Pacific (WNP) pose significant threats to socio‐economic systems, yet their variability during the autumn season remains relatively understudied compared to summer. This study examines the interannual and decadal variations of WNP TC genesis in autumn using reanalysis data s...

Recent intensification of extreme precipitation over East Antarctica driven by increases in greenhouse gases and stratospheric ozone