Geophysical Research Letters

Abstract We quantify the impact of ocean eddies on the global-mean tropical-cyclone intensity in a 1-year simulation run with a coupled atmosphere-ocean model with quite-realistic seasonal climatology that resolves both Tropical cyclones (TCs) and ocean eddies. We find a significantly lower global-mean intensity and intensification rate for the subset of TCs that spend more time over cold-core eddies than warm-core eddies. While not statistically significant, we also find that TCs that encounter more warm than cold-core eddies display a higher global-mean intensity and intensification rate. The differing impact of warm-core and cold-core ocean eddies are consistent with coherent differences in sea-surface cooling prior to peak intensity. Our results demonstrate that ocean eddies can have a statistically significant impact on the global-mean intensity, suggesting that resolving ocean eddies does matter for global TC statistics.