Fig. 1: Long-term trends of cold wake size and total cooling across different thresholds.
From: Shrinking cold wakes accelerate tropical cyclone intensification in recent decades
Time series of cold wake size (a) and total cooling (b) are shown for three SST thresholds used to identify cold wakes: −0.5 °C (light blue), −0.7 °C (blue), and −1.0 °C (dark blue). All TC cases reaching 35 kt between 45°S and 45°N are calculated, with coastal effects reduced by excluding cases located within 200 km of the coastline (Methods). Solid lines represent linear trends with 95% confidence intervals shaded. All thresholds exhibit significant downward trends (p < 0.01), and the error bars denote the standard deviation for each year. The probability density distributions of cold wake size (c) and total cooling (d) at the −0.7 °C threshold for two different periods: 1982–2002 (black) and 2003–2023 (blue).
