Tropical Cyclones Cool the Climate Compared with Regular Convection

As a spectacular manifestation of aggregated convective systems, tropical cyclones (TCs) influence the atmospheric radiative budget in ways significantly different from other types of convection. Based on long-term global satellite measurements, this study quantified the unique impact of TCs on Earth’s top-of-atmosphere energy budget relative to non-TC (regular) convection for the first time. Due to their high precipitation efficiency and induced wide regions of compensating subsidence, TCs are found to be less effective in shielding Earth’s longwave radiation to space than non-TC convection per unit precipitation. This finding is supported by GFDL climate model simulations, which well simulated TC statistics. The projected rainfall shift from non-TC convection to TCs with warming by the model indicated a potential negative feedback to global warming by TC-induced radiative cooling.