Global warming making tropical cyclones fiercer

NEW YORK: The global warming is leading to tropical cyclones becoming stronger and stronger, a new study says.

This bolsters the theory already put forward that global warming is a contributing factor in increasing intensity of hurricanes in the Atlantic over last 30 years.

Using global satellite data, researchers found that ocean temperatures play a role in driving this trend which, they say is consistent with "heat-engine" theory of cyclones.

The study was conducted by Florida State University's (FSU) professor James B Elsner University of Wisconsin Professor James P Kossin and FSU postdoctoral researcher H Jagger.

"As seas warm, the ocean has more energy that can be converted to tropical cyclone wind," Elsner said. "Our results do not prove the heat-engine theory. We just show that the data are quite consistent with it."

Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology first suggested the possible connection between global warming and increases in tropical cyclone intensity in a 2005 paper. He linked the increased intensity of storms to the heating of the oceans, which has been attributed to global warming.

Critics, FSU noted, argued that the data were not reliable enough to make assertions about the relationship between climate change and hurricanes. Moreover, when scientists looked at the mean tropical cyclone statistics, they did not see an upward trend.