A Global Survey of Rotating Convective Updrafts in the GFDL X‐SHiELD 2021 Global Storm Resolving Model Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

We present the global characteristics of rotating convective updrafts in the 2021 version of GFDL's eXperimental System for High-resolution prediction on Earth-to-Local Domains (X-SHiELD), a kilometer-scale global storm resolving model (GSRM). Rotation is quantified using 2–5 km Updraft Helicity (UH) in a year-long integration forced by analyzed SSTs. Updrafts with UH magnitudes above 50 m 2 s −2 are common over the mid-latitude continents, where they are associated with severe weather especially in the warm seasons but are also common over most tropical ocean basins. In nearly all areas cyclonically rotating convection dominates, with larger UH values increasingly preferring cyclonic rotation. The ratio of cyclonic to Grant no. NA18OAR4320123 Grant no. NA19OAR0220146 Grant no. NA19OAR0220147