Determining 70 Percent Probability-Circle Radii of Tropical Cyclone Track Forecasts with Multiple Ensembles

The effectiveness of multiple ensembles to determine 70% probability-circle radii of operational tropical cyclone (TC) track forecasts in the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) is investigated. The ensembles used in this study are global ensembles from JMA, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the Met Office in the United Kingdom (UKMO). The verification for all TCs from 2016 to 2018 reveals that the multiple ensemble-based method has stronger correlation with operational TC track forecast mars and the clearer degree of separation among confidence levels derived from the ensemble spreads than the conventional statistical and single ensemble-based methods. It indicates that the multiple ensemble method provides situation-dependent forecast uncertainty most appropriately. As the effectiveness of the multiple ensemble method has been confirmed, JMA started to operate the multiple ensemble-based 70% probability-circle radii for its operational TC track forecasts for all forecast times up to 120 hours in June 2019. The radii are based solely on confidence levels derived from cumulative ensemble spreads of the multiple ensemble from the 4 centers. This is a good example of successful research to operation transfer of The International Grand Global Ensemble (TIGGE) project.