TempestExtremes: A framework for scale-insensitive pointwise feature tracking on unstructured grids

Abstract

This paper describes a new open-source software framework for automated pointwise feature tracking that is applicable to a wide array of climate datasets using either structured or unstructured grids. Common climatological pointwise features include tropical cyclones, extratropical cyclones and tropical easterly waves. To enable support for a wide array of detection schemes, a suite of algorithmic kernels have been developed that capture the core functionality of algorithmic tracking routines throughout the literature. A review of efforts related to pointwise feature tracking from the past 3 decades is included. Selected results using both reanalysis datasets and unstructured grid simulations are provided.