Yang, Yaxuan, Liu, Lei, Zhang, Zhouyu, Liu, Yongjie, Wang, Qingyuan, Li, Lin · Oct 21, 2026
Landfalling tropical cyclones perturb Earth's rotation
Markdown · JSON · Original source
The authors argue that landfalling tropical cyclones can temporarily change Earth's length of day by amounts comparable to those caused by great earthquakes. They estimate the effect using atmospheric reanalysis and say numerical simulations confirm it. Their examples are Hurricanes Harvey and Katrina, which they estimate lengthened the day by 1.87 and 2.29 microseconds, respectively. The authors place this finding alongside the societal costs of tropical cyclones and suggest that, as the climate warms, they may become an increasingly important source of variability in Earth's rotation. The abstract does not establish how often such changes occur or how the estimates vary across storms; it presents the result as a transient effect and the climate-related consequence as a possibility.
Headline and summary by Escape Meridian, prepared by Luna from the attributed source. A source check is not independent confirmation of the source’s claims.
Original source
physics.ao-ph · Article
Source details
Original source date: Oct 21, 2026 (2026-10-21).
Date basis: Date basis not provided.
Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-11T23:46:46.239Z. First observed: 2026-11-11T05:01:19.425Z. Retrieved: 2026-11-11T23:18:47.325Z.
Referenced by
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Limits
The supplied evidence contains the abstract, not the study's methods or detailed results; it does not provide enough detail to assess the estimates' sensitivity or how frequently the effects occur.
Open question
How sensitive are the estimated changes in Earth's length of day to the atmospheric reanalysis and numerical simulations used in the study?
Source-stated
The authors estimate that a landfalling tropical cyclone can temporarily alter the length of day by amounts comparable to those caused by great earthquakes.
a landfalling tropical cyclone can transiently alter the length of day by amounts rivalling those by great earthquakes
Source-stated
The authors used atmospheric reanalysis to estimate the effect and numerical simulations to confirm it.
we use atmospheric reanalysis to estimate, and numerical simulations to confirm
Source-stated
The authors estimate that Hurricanes Harvey and Katrina lengthened the day by 1.87 and 2.29 microseconds, respectively.
Hurricanes Harvey (2017) and Katrina (2005) lengthened the day by 1.87 microseconds and 2.29 microseconds, respectively.
Source-stated
The authors suggest tropical cyclones may become an increasingly important source of variability in Earth's rotation as the climate warms.
As the climate warms, tropical cyclones may become an increasingly important source of variability in Earth's rotation.
Source and contributor context
Yang, Yaxuan, Liu, Lei, Zhang, Zhouyu, Liu, Yongjie, Wang, Qingyuan, Li, Lin · Article author
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Source media
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Terms and references
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arXiv
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Editorial provenance
Version 1. Publication ID: 2805516a-951c-473f-80ba-c3fcab5a128e.
Prepared by gpt-6-luna; grounding review by gpt-6-luna.
Source check: passed by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-11T23:46:46.239Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true.
Editorial selection: accept; reasons: material_development.
Observation: 98e0367182168240e3da32d42319131567f182f847376b4e492f087e8acb8a1f. Source text hash: f9c50cd72c00bcfaba5e6446248d9a142e5a3451f4d19fac49742d7ac58cc999.
Correction reason: Restored the authors’ specific climate-related claim that tropical cyclones may become an increasingly important source of variability in Earth's rotation.
Revision and source-check history
Version 1 · 2026-11-11T23:46:46.239Z · Restored the authors’ specific climate-related claim that tropical cyclones may become an increasingly important source of variability in Earth's rotation.
Landfalling tropical cyclones perturb Earth's rotation
The authors argue that landfalling tropical cyclones can temporarily change Earth's length of day by amounts comparable to those caused by great earthquakes. They estimate the effect using atmospheric reanalysis and say numerical simulations confirm it. Their examples are Hurricanes Harvey and Katrina, which they estimate lengthened the day by 1.87 and 2.29 microseconds, respectively. The authors place this finding alongside the societal costs of tropical cyclones and suggest that, as the climate warms, they may become an increasingly important source of variability in Earth's rotation. The abstract does not establish how often such changes occur or how the estimates vary across storms; it presents the result as a transient effect and the climate-related consequence as a possibility.
Original source
physics.ao-ph · Article
Source details
Original source date: Oct 21, 2026 (2026-10-21).
Date basis: Date basis not provided.
Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-11T23:46:46.239Z. First observed: 2026-11-11T05:01:19.425Z. Retrieved: 2026-11-11T23:18:47.325Z.
Limits
The supplied evidence contains the abstract, not the study's methods or detailed results; it does not provide enough detail to assess the estimates' sensitivity or how frequently the effects occur.
Open question
How sensitive are the estimated changes in Earth's length of day to the atmospheric reanalysis and numerical simulations used in the study?
Source-stated
The authors estimate that a landfalling tropical cyclone can temporarily alter the length of day by amounts comparable to those caused by great earthquakes.
a landfalling tropical cyclone can transiently alter the length of day by amounts rivalling those by great earthquakes
Source-stated
The authors used atmospheric reanalysis to estimate the effect and numerical simulations to confirm it.
we use atmospheric reanalysis to estimate, and numerical simulations to confirm
Source-stated
The authors estimate that Hurricanes Harvey and Katrina lengthened the day by 1.87 and 2.29 microseconds, respectively.
Hurricanes Harvey (2017) and Katrina (2005) lengthened the day by 1.87 microseconds and 2.29 microseconds, respectively.
Source-stated
The authors suggest tropical cyclones may become an increasingly important source of variability in Earth's rotation as the climate warms.
As the climate warms, tropical cyclones may become an increasingly important source of variability in Earth's rotation.
Source and contributor context
Yang, Yaxuan, Liu, Lei, Zhang, Zhouyu, Liu, Yongjie, Wang, Qingyuan, Li, Lin · Article author
These are credits stated by the source; they do not establish a profile match or authorship of every passage.
Source media
No suitable media was found by the supported page extraction.
Terms and references
Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement.
arXiv
arXiv is a research manuscript repository where authors share papers that may not yet have been peer reviewed.
Editorial provenance
Version 1. Publication ID: 2805516a-951c-473f-80ba-c3fcab5a128e.
Prepared by gpt-6-luna; grounding review by gpt-6-luna.
Source check: passed by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-11T23:46:46.239Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true.
Editorial selection: accept; reasons: material_development.
Observation: 98e0367182168240e3da32d42319131567f182f847376b4e492f087e8acb8a1f. Source text hash: f9c50cd72c00bcfaba5e6446248d9a142e5a3451f4d19fac49742d7ac58cc999.
Correction reason: Restored the authors’ specific climate-related claim that tropical cyclones may become an increasingly important source of variability in Earth's rotation.
passed · 2026-11-11T23:46:46.239Z · anthropic/claude-opus-5.5
Publication: 2805516a-951c-473f-80ba-c3fcab5a128e
attribution — pass: The reading consistently attributes the findings, examples and climate projection to the paper's authors as estimates or suggestions. It does not present them as established fact or as Escape Meridian's view.
Here we use atmospheric reanalysis to estimate, and numerical simulations to confirm
summary — pass: The summary leads with the authors' central claim, keeps the transient scope, and gives the Harvey and Katrina figures. It preserves the conditional climate projection and states what the abstract leaves unresolved. 'Atmospheric reanalysis' could use a term-library tooltip, but the main idea is readable without it. Optional repair: name the Tōhoku earthquake's 1.80 microsecond benchmark, which makes 'comparable to great earthquakes' concrete. The question is non-leading and follows from the evidence.
The 2011 $M_w$ 9.1 Tōhoku earthquake, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded, shortened the day by 1.80 microseconds.
date — pass: The originalPublished date, 2026-10-21, matches the v1 submission date on arXiv. The feed date of 2026-11-11 is correctly not used.
[Submitted on 21 Oct 2026]
support — pass: All four claims quote the abstract verbatim and keep their hedges ('may become', 'transiently'). The limitation correctly notes that only the abstract is available. The summary implies no unsupported benefits or costs, and the question raises a genuine open methodological issue.
As the climate warms, tropical cyclones may become an increasingly important source of variability in Earth's rotation.
media — pass: The selected media is the verified direct link to the arXiv abstract page, which is the original source. No better source media was found.
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