title: Impact of assimilated and interactive aerosol on tropical cyclogenesis.
abstract: This article investigates the impact of Saharan dust on the development of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic. A global data assimilation and forecast system, the NASA GEOS-5, is used to assimilate all satellite and conventional data sets used operationally for numerical weather prediction. In addition, this new GEOS-5 version includes assimilation of aerosol optical depth from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. The analysis so obtained comprises atmospheric quantities and a realistic 3-D aerosol and cloud distribution, consistent with the meteorology and validated against Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation and CloudSat data. These improved analyses are used to initialize GEOS-5 forecasts, explicitly accounting for aerosol direct radiative effects and their impact on the atmospheric dynamics. Parallel simulations with/without aerosol radiative effects show that effects of dust on static stability increase with time, becoming highly significant after day 5 and producing an environment less favorable to tropical cyclogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Earth Science Division-Atmospheres, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, USA ; Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research, Universities Space Research Association Columbia, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Reale
authors.affiliation: Earth Science Division-Atmospheres, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.affiliation: Earth Science Division-Atmospheres, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland, USA ; Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland College Park, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsui
keywords: Global Data Assimilation and Modeling; Impact of dust on tropical cyclones