Connecting Marine Heatwaves and Tropical Cyclones: Better Understanding of the Ocean’s Role in Rapid Intensification

Marine heatwaves recently gained growing social attention, and the importance of marine heatwave events has been mainly emphasized due to their impacts on marine ecosystems. Here, we show how marine heat waves strengthen tropical cyclones (TCs) over the western North Pacific and Atlantic. We examine the day-to-day TC intensification process of 128 TCs that intensified during marine heatwaves and compared them to 184 TCs that intensified without marine heatwaves. As a result, the precipitation-rich condition induced by increased latent heat flux from extremely warm oceans in the early phase of TCs leads to rapid intensification during marine heatwave events. This study will provide a critical opportunity to open a new interdisciplinary field connecting the newly growing marine heatwave research field and the TC research field, providing a better understanding of the ocean’s role in tropical cyclone rapid intensification.