INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY

Int. J. Climatol. 35: 48434848 (2015)

Published online 4 March 2015 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/joc.4307

Short Communication
Global climatology of tropical cyclone size as inferred
from QuikSCAT data
Kelvin T. F. Chan* and Johnny C. L. Chan
School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, China

ABSTRACT: This paper presents to date the most complete global climatology of the size of tropical cyclones (TCs) between
1999 and 2009 using the QuikSCAT satellite data. Here, TC size is defined as the azimuthal mean radius of 17 m s1 surface
winds from the TC centre. While the TC size climatology for the Western North Pacific (WNP) and North Atlantic (NA) has
been documented in previous studies, those for the Eastern North Pacific (ENP), South Indian Ocean (SI) and South Pacific
(SP) have yet to be examined in detail, which is the objective of this study. Among all the basins, TCs over the WNP are the
largest and have the largest variance, while those over the ENP are the smallest. In addition, TCs in the Northern Hemisphere
(WNP, NA and ENP) have two seasonal size peaks, but those in the Southern Hemisphere (SI and SP) have only one. An
important finding is that for all basins, the size of a TC does not necessarily increase with latitude monotonically, but reaches
the maximum at some latitudinal region. Such a result agrees well with a recent theoretical study in terms of a balance between
the inertial stability associated with the TC circulation and the import of angular momentum into the TC.

KEY WORDS tropical cyclone; size; climatology

Received 13 October 2014; Revised 8 January 2015; Accepted 10 February 2015

1. Introduction A thorough search through the literature shows that no

detailed study of TC size, which is defined as the azimuthal
The climatology of the size of tropical cyclone (TC) over
mean radius of 17 m s1 surface winds from the TC centre
the Western North Pacific (WNP) and North Atlantic (NA)
(R17), over the Eastern North Pacific (ENP), South Indian
has been well studied using observational data (e.g. Mer-
Ocean (SI) and South Pacific (SP) has been performed
rill, 1984; Kimball and Mulekar, 2004; Yuan et al., 2007;
using the QuikSCAT data. The objective of this study is,
Lu et al., 2011; Chan and Chan, 2012). Recently, Chavas
therefore, to complete the investigation on the distribution
and Emanuel (2010) and Knaff et al. (2014) extended
of TC size between 1999 and 2009 using the QuikSCAT
the investigation further to other ocean basins, and they
data for all ocean basins, as a follow-up of Chan and Chan
established a global climatology of TC size using the
(2012).
QuikSCAT satellite data and infrared imagery, respec-
Section 2 describes the data used in this study. The
tively. Although the definitions of TC size are different
methods of data selection, estimation and classification of
among some of the above studies, TC size is suggested
TC size are presented in Section 3. Section 4 discusses the
to vary with season, region, latitude, TC lifetime, El
global climatology of TC size. Finally, Section 5 concludes
NioSouthern Oscillation and subtropical ridge activ-
with a summary.
ity. Angular momentum transport (Chan and Chan, 2013),
environmental humidity (Hill and Lackmann, 2009), sur-
face entropy flux (Xu and Wang, 2010a), initial vortex size
(Xu and Wang, 2010b; Chan and Chan, 2014), planetary 2. Data
vorticity (Smith et al., 2011; Chan and Chan, 2014), vortex 2.1. Scatterometer data
intensification (Knaff et al., 2014; Chan and Chan, 2015)
Consistent with Chan and Chan (2012), the post-processed
and outer winds (Chan and Chan, 2015) have been pro-
0.25 latitude by 0.25 longitude gridded QuikSCAT data
posed to be possible factors and/or mechanisms that can
from the Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) database are
affect TC size.
used. These data are produced by RSS and sponsored
by the National Aeronautics and Space Administra-
tion Ocean Vector Winds Science Team. Data are
* Correspondence to: K. T. F. Chan, School of Energy and Environment,
available at www.remss.com. RSS post-processed the
City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, QuikSCAT L2A data from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
China. E-mail: Kelvin.T.F.Chan@my.cityu.edu.hk which reprocessed the data in 2006 using the Ku-2001

2015 Royal Meteorological Society

4844 K. T. F. CHAN AND J. C. L. CHAN
geophysical model function (used to derive 10-m surface
wind speeds and directions from the QuikSCAT) and
passed them through quality checks by comparing them
with the first-guess field of a numerical weather prediction
model so that the data are largely validated.
The RSS QuikSCAT data basically contain rain flag
information, 10-m surface wind speeds and directions.
Because rain can contaminate the backscattered signal to a
certain extent (e.g. Atlas et al., 2001; Ebuchi et al., 2002;
Stiles and Yueh, 2002; Brennan et al., 2009), data selection
is therefore important and will be discussed in detail in
Section 3. Because of the sparse data samples over the
North Indian Ocean, only the data over the WNP, NA,
ENP, SI and SP between July 1999 and November 2009
from the QuikSCAT satellite are used to study the global
climatology of TC size in this study (Table 1). Note that
the number of samples over the SP is rather small so that
the results from this basin should be treated with caution
throughout the study.
2.2. Best-track datasets
The positions of TCs with at least tropical storm (TS)
intensity are estimated from the 6 hourly best-track
datasets of the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and the
National Hurricane Center.
3. Methodology
3.1. Criteria for the selection of QuikSCAT data
As QuikSCAT is a polar-orbiting satellite, its swath might
not cover the entire circulation of a particular TC at a
particular time. In addition, in order to minimise noise and
uncertainty, the same data selection approach in Chan and
Chan (2012) is employed such that only data satisfying all
of the following criteria are used:
I. TC must be at TS intensity or above (maximum
sustained wind 17 m s1 ).
II. The TC centre must be covered by the swath.
III. The distance between the TC centre and the edge of
the swaths must be >1 latitude.
IV. More than 50% of the TC circulation (subjectively
estimated to be the extent of the cyclonic circula-
tion) is covered by the swath.
V. The TC circulation should have no extensive
wind-discontinuity problem (large shift in wind
direction in neighbouring grid points, subjectively
determined).
VI. Azimuthally averaged wind speed profile must
reach 17 m s1 or above after filtering all
rain-flagged data (see Section 3.2).
VII. R17 should not overlay any major landmass (with
10% tolerance).
VIII. Rain-flagged data are excluded.
After passing this strict quality check, the sample size
of the present study is the largest among all previous
studies based on remote-sensing techniques and similar TC
2015 Royal Meteorological Society
size definition (R17). While some of these criteria might
be somewhat subjective, such an approach minimises the
potential for large errors in the estimation of TC size.
3.2. Estimation of TC size
Consistent with Chan and Chan (2012), the size of a TC is
defined as the average radial extent of gale-force surface
winds (17 m s1 ) from the TC centre, R17. Azimuthally
averaged winds between 0.25 and 6.25 latitude from
the centre at intervals of 0.25 latitude are obtained by
averaging the winds within each 0.25 latitude wide ring
belt. The use of an azimuthal average is to remove most of
the asymmetry associated with TC motion. To make sure
that a reasonable value of the azimuthally averaged wind
in each ring belt can be obtained, the following criteria are
also set. A missing value is set for any case failing any of
these criteria.
I. The number of available (not rain-flagged) data points
in each ring belt must be >5, regardless of wind
direction.
II. The fraction of available data points to total data points
in each ring belt must be 0.5.
It is assumed that a TC behaves like a Rankine vortex
outside the maximum winds; that is, v = Crb , where v is
the total wind speed, r the radial distance from the TC
centre, C and b are constants for a given profile. Six valid
azimuthally averaged winds with wind speeds closest to
17 m s1 are then used to fit the vortex profile after taking
the logarithm. The choice of six values (1.5 latitude) is
considered to be enough and reasonable to estimate R17.
No extrapolation of TC size is allowed.
3.3. Classification of TC size
Applying the same approach of Chan and Chan (2012),
the classification of TC size (small, medium or large) in
this study is defined using the 25th and 75th percentiles
(Table 1).
4. Global climatology of TC size
4.1. Overview
Table 1 and Figure 1 show a significant variation of TC
size distribution among different basins. The global mean
size is 1.88 latitude and ranges from a minimum of 1.13
latitude in the ENP to a maximum of 2.13 latitude in
the WNP. The median and standard deviation scale across
basins in a similar fashion to the mean value. The standard
deviation of TC size over the WNP is the largest among all
basins, which suggests that WNP TCs have a larger size
variation than those in the other basins.
In general, ENP TCs are comparably smaller because
they are mostly located to the south of the subtropical high
which hinders and suppresses the northward movement
and the growth of TC size (Merrill, 1984; Liu and Chan,
2002). On the average, TCs in the WNP and SP are the
largest, probably because they are mostly embedded in the
Int. J. Climatol. 35: 48434848 (2015)
 GLOBAL CLIMATOLOGY OF TC SIZE 4845

Table 1. Statistical attributes of TC size over the Western North Pacific (WNP), North Atlantic (NA), Eastern North Pacific (ENP),
South Indian Ocean (SI), South Pacific (SP), Northern Hemisphere (NH; i.e. WNP + NA + ENP), Southern Hemisphere (SH; i.e.
SI + SP) and the globe (all; i.e. NH + SH).

WNP NA ENP SI SP NH SH All

No. of cases 814 364 168 250 75 1346 325 1671
No. of TCs 176 74 59 72 25 309 97 406
Size ( lat)
Mean 2.13 1.83 1.13 1.63 2.04 1.92 1.72 1.88
Standard deviation 0.98 0.75 0.45 0.70 0.71 0.93 0.72 0.89
Median 1.94 1.69 1.03 1.49 2.10 1.75 1.57 1.73
25th percentile 1.41 1.26 0.84 1.12 1.48 1.23 1.18 1.21
75th percentile 2.61 2.26 1.36 1.99 2.44 2.44 2.15 2.37

2.5

1.5
R17 ( lat)

0.5

814 364 168 250 75 1346 325 1671

(176) (74) (59) (72) (25) (309) (97) (406)
0
WNP NA ENP SI SP NH SH All
Basin

Figure 1. Mean TC size by basin. Vertical bars represent the 95% confidence intervals in the t distribution. Numbers above the x axis indicate the
number of cases and number of TCs (with parentheses). Basins listed are Western North Pacific (WNP), North Atlantic (NA), Eastern North Pacific
(ENP), South Indian Ocean (SI), South Pacific (SP), Northern Hemisphere (NH; i.e. WNP + NA + ENP), Southern Hemisphere (SH; i.e. SI + SP)
and the globe (all; i.e. NH + SH).

monsoon trough and have more chance to move poleward
so that they can grow through the mechanisms of angular
momentum import (Chan and Chan, 2013).
These basin to basin distributions are comparable to
those in another study (Chavas and Emanuel, 2010),
although their definition of TC size is different. Note
also that TCs over the Northern Hemisphere (NH; i.e.
WNP + NA + ENP) are found to be significantly larger
than those over the Southern Hemisphere (SH; i.e. SI + SP)
by 0.2 latitude radius on the average (at 99% confidence
level based on the Students t-test).
4.2. Monthly distribution
Two monthly peaks of mean TC size are found in the
WNP, NA and ENP (Figure 2). Over the WNP, the mean
TC sizes in July and October are statistically larger than
those of their neighbouring months at 90% confidence
level based on the Students t-test (Figure 2(a)). Similarly
for the ENP, the mean TC sizes in July and September are
also statistically larger than those of their neighbouring
months (Figure 2(b)). However, the mean NA TC sizes
in September and November are larger than those of
their neighbouring months at the 99 and 74% confidence
levels, respectively, which suggests that the mean TC
size peak in November may not be genuine or significant
(Figure 2(c)), and hence, it should be treated with caution.
Two apparent monthly peaks of mean TC size still appear
even if the TCs over the WNP, NA and ENP are taken as a
whole (Figure 2(d)). For more discussions of the monthly
variation of TC size over the WNP and NA, see Chan and
Chan (2012).
In the SH, unlike the two monthly-peak pattern pre-
sented in the NH, a single monthly TC size peak is found
(Figure 3). Figure 3(a) shows that the mean size of SI
TCs in the late season (February to March) is significantly
larger than those in the pre- and mid-summer. On the other
hand, there is not much monthly mean TC size varia-
tion in SP, probably because of the small number of cases
(Figure 3(b)).
4.3. Spatial distribution
A more important result is the latitudinal variation of
TC size (Figures 4 and 5). The percentages of WNP and

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4846 K. T. F. CHAN AND J. C. L. CHAN

(a) 3 WNP (a) 2.5 SI

2.5 2

R17 ( lat)
R17 ( lat)

2
1.5
1.5
1
1
8 0 7 33 51 47 115 170 179 148 31 25 1 15 27 37 89 57 20 4
0.5 0.5
h il y e y st r r r r er er er ry ry h ril ay
y y
uar ruar Marc Apr Ma Jun Jul ugu mbe tobe mbe mbe tob mb mb anua brua Marc Ap M
Jan Feb A pte Oc ve ce Oc Nove Dece J Fe
Se No De
(b) 1.5 ENP (b) 3 SP
2.5

R17 ( lat)
R17 ( lat)

2
1
1.5

1
0 0 0 0 3 7 34 55 53 16 0 0 0 0 9 13 32 20 1 0
0.5 0.5
y y h il y e y st r r r r er er er ry ry h ril ay
uar ruar Marc Apr Ma Jun Jul ugu mbe tobe mbe mbe tob mb mb anua brua Marc Ap M
Jan Feb A pte Oc ve ce Oc Nove Dece J Fe
Se No De
(c) 2.5 NA (c) 2.5 SH

2 2
R17 ( lat)
R17 ( lat)

1.5
1.5
1
1
1 15 36 50 121 77 21 4
0 0 0 0 0 0 30 77 197 36 17 7 0.5
0.5 er
mb
er ber y y h
uar ruar Marc Apr
il ay
h il y e y st r r r tob m M
y y r
uar ruar Marc Apr Ma Jun Jul ugu mbe tobe mbe mbe Oc Nove Dece Jan Feb
Jan Feb A pte Oc ve ce
Se No De Month

(d) 2.5 NH
Figure 3. As in Figure 2, but over the (a) SI, (b) SP and (c) SH.
2
R17 ( lat)

1.5 cases, the optimum latitudinal region for TC size growth

1
0.5
8 0 7 33 54 54 179 302 429 200 48 32
y y h il y e y st r r r
uar ruar Marc Apr Ma Jun Jul ugu mbe tobe mbe mbe
r latitude radius smaller than those in WNP and NA on aver-
Jan Feb A pte Oc ve ce
S e No De
Month
Figure 2. Monthly mean of TC size over the (a) WNP, (b) ENP, (c) NA
and (d) NH. Vertical bars represent the 95% confidence intervals in the t
distribution. Numbers above the x axis indicate the number of cases.
NA TCs larger than 2 -latitude radius generally increase
with latitude and reach a peak within the 20 25 N band
and then decrease poleward (Figure 4(a) and (c)). In the
ENP, the latitude band with the highest percentage of
large TCs is more equatorward at 15 20 N (Figure 4(b)),
which is consistent with the discussion in Section 4.1. A
similar result is found in the SH such that the percent-
age of SI TCs with radius larger than 1 latitude gener-
ally increases with latitude and reaches a peak within the
20 25 S band and then decreases poleward (Figure 5(a)).
Although the pattern shown in the SP (Figure 5(b)) may
not be obvious, probably because of the small number of
is still present after taking the SI and SP TCs as a whole
(Figure 5(c)). Note that because TCs in the SH are gen-
erally smaller than those in the NH (e.g. SI TCs are 0.5
age; see Table 1), in order to shed light on the results in a
more physically meaningful and visually comfortable per-
spective, different shadings are used in Figures 4 and 5.
These results demonstrate for the first time through
observations that as a TC moves poleward, it will gener-
ally increase and reach a maximum size within some lati-
tude band (15 25 away from the equator). If it moves
further poleward, it will likely not continue to grow. In
a recent numerical study, Chan and Chan (2014) showed
that for a TC of a given size, import of both the earth
angular momentum (EAM) and relative angular momen-
tum (RAM) will lead to an increase in size. As the TC
moves poleward, the inertial stability associated with the
entire TC circulation will also increase, which will lead
to a decrease in the radial wind that is responsible for the
transport of angular momentum. The import of RAM will,
therefore, be reduced. Meanwhile, the import of EAM is
compensated, in part, by the increase of EAM itself. Nev-
ertheless, as the TC moves further poleward, the inertial

2015 Royal Meteorological Society Int. J. Climatol. 35: 48434848 (2015)

 GLOBAL CLIMATOLOGY OF TC SIZE 4847

(a) 35<40 (15) WNP (a) 5> 10 (3)

SI
30<35 (52) 0<R171 10> 15 (78)
0<R171
25<30 (158) 1<R172 15> 20 (98)
1<R172
20<25 (219) 2<R173 20> 25 (48) 2<R173
3<R174
15<20 (223) 25> 30 (17) 3<R174
4<R175
10<15 (114) 30> 35 (4) 4<R175
5<R176
5<10 (31) 6<R177 35> 40 (1)

0%
% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 0%
% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

(b) 35<40 (63) NA (b) 5> 10 (1)

SP
0<R171 10> 15 (16)
30<35 (82) 0<R171
1<R172 15> 20 (18)
25<30 (70) 1<R172
2<R173
20> 25 (25) 2<R173
20<25 (55) 3<R174
4<R175 25> 30 (14) 3<R174
15<20 (61) 30> 35 (1) 4<R175
10<15 (16) 35> 40 (0)

0%
% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 0%
% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

(c) 35<40 (0) ENP (c) 5> 10 (4)

SH
30<35 (0) 0<R171 10> 15 (94)
0<R171
25<30 (0) 1<R172 15> 20 (116) 1<R172
20<25 (28) 2<R173 20> 25 (73) 2<R173
15<20 (100) 25> 30 (31) 3<R174
10<15 (40) 30> 35 (5) 4<R175
5<10 (0) 35> 40 (1)

0%
% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

(d) 35<40 (78) NH Figure 5. As in Figure 4, but over the (a) SI, (b) SP and (c) SH. Note that
30<35 (134) the shadings are different from those in Figure 4.
0<R171
25<30 (228) 1<R172
20<25 (302) 2<R173
3<R174 mean radius of 10-m 17 m s1 winds from the TC centre,
15<20 (384)
10<15 (170)
4<R175 between 1999 and 2009 using the QuikSCAT satellite
5<R176 data by extending the investigation to other parts of the
5<10 (32) 6<R177
globe. That is, apart from the WNP and NA, the TC size
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
distributions over the ENP, SI and SP are further examined.
The mean size and size variation of WNP TCs are the
Figure 4. Percentage distribution of TC size (unit: degree latitude) at
largest and have the largest variance globally, while those
different latitude bands (every 5 N) over the (a) WNP, (b) NA, (c) ENP
and (d) NH. Values in the brackets are the number of cases in the over the ENP are the smallest. In addition, TCs in the NH
particular latitude bands. (i.e. WNP, NA and ENP), on the average, are significantly
larger than those in the SH (i.e. SI and SP). Furthermore,
two seasonal TC size peaks are found for NH TCs, but only
stability dominates and the import of angular momentum one for SH TCs. Most importantly, results consistently
will decrease as a whole. Therefore, the TC will reach a suggest that the size of a TC does not necessarily increase
maximum size at some optimal latitude. with latitude monotonically, but reaches the maximum at
The consistency between the theoretical and observa- some latitudinal region, in which the optimum latitudinal
tional studies, and the fact that the latter comes from very region could be basin dependent (15 25 latitude away
large datasets and from different basins suggest that the from the equator in general).
conclusion of the existence of an optimal latitude band
within which a TC reaches its maximum size should be
quite robust. This result, therefore, provides a new valida- Acknowledgements
tion tool and has implication on the forecasting of changes
in TC size. This study is supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants
Council Grant City U 11300214.

5. Summary
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Int. J. Climatol. 35: 48434848 (2015)