To investigate climatological aspects of tropical cyclones (TCs) as well as large-scale influences on tropical cyclogenesis, numerical experiments have been conducted using the NCAR Community Climate Model version 3 with T170 resolution. In this model, the deep convection scheme was modified to simulate realistic TC climatology.

In this study, a simulated TC is defined as a low over the ocean between 40N to 40S with a significant pressure gradient at sea level and a warm-core structure in the upper troposphere. The global frequency of simulated TCs is comparable to observation, although the geophysical distribution of TC occurrence is shifted to the Northern Hemisphere and concentrated in limited areas. The high-resolution model has the most advantage in simulating individual TCs realistically. A typical example of simulated TCs shows some characteristic behaviors such as the organization of meso-scale convection systems in a development stage, a recurved motion in a mature stage, and transition to a extratropical cyclone in a decaying stage. Regarding the overall performance as a climate model, however, there are some problems such as the increase of energy imbalance and over-estimated precipitation, which requires the improvement in physical processes in the model.