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Tropical Cyclone Forecasts in the DIMOSIC Project -- Medium-Range Forecast Models with Common Initial Conditions
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  • Jan-Huey Chen,
  • Linjiong Zhou,
  • Linus Magnusson,
  • Ron McTaggart-Cowan,
  • Martin Köhler
Jan-Huey Chen
NOAA GFDL/ UCAR

Corresponding Author:jan-huey.chen@noaa.gov

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Linjiong Zhou
Cooperative Institute for Modeling Earth Systems, and Program on Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University
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Linus Magnusson
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
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Ron McTaggart-Cowan
Environment and Climate Change Canada
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Martin Köhler
Deutscher Wetterdienst
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Abstract

The Tropical cyclone (TC) forecast skill of the eight global medium-range forecast models which are participating in the DIMOSIC (DIfferent Models, Same Initial Conditions) project is investigated in this study. Each model was used to generate 10-day forecasts from the same initial conditions provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. There are a total of 123 initial dates spanning in one year from June 2018 to June 2019 with a 3-day interval. The TC track and intensity forecasts are evaluated against the best track dataset. TC-related precipitation and tropical cyclogenesis forecasts are also compared to explore the differences and similarities of TC forecasts across the models. This comparison of TC forecasts allows model developers in different centers to benchmark their model against other models, with the impact of the initial condition quality removed. The verifications reveal that most models show slow-moving and right-of-track biases in their TC track forecasts. Also, a common dry bias in TC-related precipitation indicates a general deficiency in TC intensity and convection in the models which should be related to insufficient model resolution. These findings provide important references for future model developments.