North Pacific sea ice cover, a predictor for the Western North Pacific typhoon frequency?

The relationship between the sea ice cover in the North Pacific and the typhoon frequency has been studied in this paper. It follows that the index for the sea ice cover in the North Pacific (ISA) both in December-January-February (DJF) and in March-April-May (MAM) is negatively correlated with annual typhoon number over the western North Pacific (TNWNP) during 1965―2004, with correlation coeffi-cients of -0.42 and -0.49 respectively (above 99% significant level). Large sea ice cover in the North Pacific tends to decrease TNWNP. Positive ISA (MAM) is associated with the tropical circulation and SST anomalies in the North Pacific, which may lead to unfavorable dynamic and thermal conditions for typhoon genesis over WNP from June to October (JJASO). The variability of the atmospheric circula-tion over the North Pacific, associated with the ISA anomaly in MAM is connected to the tropical at-mospheric circulation variability in MAM via the teleconnection wave train. Besides, as the tropical circulation has strong seasonal persistency from the MAM to JJASO, thus, the ISA in MAM-related variability of the tropical atmospheric circulation as well as the SST can affect the typhoon activity over the western North Pacific.     

Forecasting the summer rainfall in North China using the year-to-year increment approach

A new approach to forecasting the year-to-year increment of rainfall in North China in July–August (JA) is proposed. DY is defined as the difference of a variable between the current year and the preceding year (year-to-year increment). NR denotes the seasonal mean precipitation rate over North China in JA. After analyzing the atmospheric circulation anomalies associated with the DY of NR, five key predictors for the DY of NR have been identified. The prediction model for the DY of NR is established by using multi-linear regression method and the NR is obtained (the current forecasted DY of NR added to the preceding observed NR). The prediction model shows a high correlation coefficient (0.8) between the simulated and the observed DY of NR throughout period 1965–1999, with an average relative root mean square error of 19% for the percentage of precipitation rate anomaly over North China. The prediction model makes a hindcast for 2000–2007, with an average relative root mean square error of 21% for the percentage of precipitation rate anomaly over North China. The model reproduces the downward trend of the percentage of precipitation rate anomaly over North China during 1965–2006. Because the current operational prediction models of the summer precipitation have average forecast scores of 60%–70%, it has been more difficult to forecast the summer rainfall over North China. Thus this new approach for predicting the year-to-year increment of the summer precipitation (and hence the summer precipitation itself) has the potential to significantly improve operational forecasting skill for summer precipitation. Supported by National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2009CB421406), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40631005, 40775049) and Excellent Ph. D Dissertation in Chinese Academy of Sciences     

Relationships between the North Pacific Oscillation and the typhoon/hurricane frequencies

Relationships between the North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) and the typhoon as well as hurricane fre-quencies are documented. The correlation between NPO index in June-July-August-September and the annual typhoon number in the western North Pacific is 0.37 for the period of 1949―1998. The NPO is correlated with the annual hurricane number in the tropical Atlantic at -0.28 for the same period. The variability of NPO is found to be concurrent with the changes of the magnitude of vertical zonal wind shear, sea-level pressure patterns, as well as the sea surface temperature, which are physically asso- ciated with the typhoons and hurricanes genesis. The NPO associated atmospheric circulation vari- ability is analyzed to explain how NPO is linked with variability of the tropical atmospheric circulation in the western Pacific and the tropical Atlantic, via the atmospheric teleconnection.     

Tropical cyclones and multiscale climate variability: The active western North Pacific Typhoon season of 2018

The 2018 typhoon season in the western North Pacific(WNP) was highly active, with 26 named tropical cyclones(TCs) from June to November, which exceeded the climatological mean(22) and was the second busiest season over the past twenty years. More TCs formed in the eastern region of the WNP and the northern region of the South China Sea(SCS). More TCs took the northeast quadrant in the WNP, recurving from northwestward to northward and causing heavy damages in China's Mainland(69.73 billion yuan) in 2018. Multiscale climate variability is conducive to an active season via an enhanced monsoon trough and a weakened subtropical high in the WNP. The large-scale backgrounds in 2018 showed a favorable environment for TCs established by a developing central Pacific(CP) El Ni?o and positive Pacific meridional mode(PMM)episode on interannual timescales. The tropical central Pacific(TCP) SST forcing exhibits primary control on TCs in the WNP and large-scale circulations, which are insensitive to the PMM. During CP El Ni?o years, anomalous convection associated with the TCP warming leads to significantly increased anomalous cyclonic circulation in the WNP because of a Gill-type Rossby wave response. As a result, the weakened subtropical high and enhanced monsoon trough shift eastward and northward, which favor TC genesis and development. Although such increased TC activity in 2018 might be slightly suppressed by interdecadal climate variability, it was mostly attributed to the favorable interannual background. In addition, high-frequency climate signals,such as intraseasonal oscillations(ISOs) and synoptic-scale disturbances(SSDs), interacted with the enhanced monsoon trough and strongly modulated regional TC genesis and development in 2018.     

Role of ENSO in the interannual relationship between Tibetan Plateau winter snow cover and Northwest Pacific tropical cyclone genesis frequency

Previous studies have revealed a significantly negative correlation between prior winter snow cover over the Tibetan Plateau(TPSC) and tropical cyclone genesis frequency(TCF) over the western North Pacific(WNP) in the following typhoon season. This study revisited this relationship based on long-term observational data. The results showed that the interannual correlation between TCF over the WNP and TPSC experienced a shift in the early 1990 s. This correlation is significant during only 1993–2012 and is considerably weak during 1976–1992. The possible reasons causing the shift were examined further, and the results demonstrated that the central Pacific(CP) El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation(ENSO) has played a vital role in intensifying the interannual relationship between TCF over the WNP and TPSC since the early 1990 s. During 1993–2012, TPSC was negatively related to CP ENSO. When TPSC was higher than(lower than) normal, CP ENSO was often in its cold(warm) phase. Such a combination remarkably enhances the relationship of TPSC with the zonal land-sea thermal difference and thus with the summer monsoon over the WNP. Additionally, it enhances the modulation of TPSC on the dynamical environments controlling TCF. As a result, the linkage between TPSC and TCF was significantly strengthened in this period. In sharp contrast, due to the weak relationship between TPSC and ENSO followed by the weak modulation of TPSC on the summer monsoon over the WNP and the dynamical environment during 1976–1992, the linkage between TPSC and TCF was weak during this time period. The results from additional dynamical diagnostic analyses further showed that during 1993–2012 CP ENSO modulated the barotropic energy conversion of zonal winds over the WNP, contributing to the intensified relationship between TPSC and TCF. These results will improve seasonal forecasting of tropical cyclone activity over the WNP.     

Sensitivity of Typhoon Vamei (2001) Simulation to Planetary Boundary Layer Parameterization Using PSU/NCAR MM5

This paper investigates the sensitivity of the numerical simulations of a near equatorial Typhoon Vamei (2001) to various planetary boundary layer (PBL) parameterization schemes in the Pennsylvania State University (PSU)/National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) non-hydrostatic mesoscale model (MM5). The numerical simulations are conducted on two domains at 45 and 15 km grids nested in a one-way fashion. Four different PBL parameterization schemes including the Blackadar (BLK) scheme, the Burk–Thompson (BURKT) scheme, the NCEP Eta model scheme and the NCEP medium range forecast (MRF) model scheme are investigated. Results indicate that the intensity and propagation track of the simulated near equatorial typhoon system is not very sensitive to the different PBL treatments. The simulated minimum central pressures and the maximum surface wind speeds differ by only 5–6 hPa and 6–8 ms⁻¹, respectively. Larger variations between the simulations occur during the weakening phase of the typhoon system. While all schemes simulated the typhoon with reasonable accuracy, the ETA scheme produces the strongest storm intensity with the largest heat exchanges over the marine environment and the highest warm moisture air content in the PBL around the core of the storm.     

Relationship between the Asian-Pacific oscillation and the tropical cyclone frequency in the western North Pacific

The relationship between the Asian-Pacific oscillation (APO) and the tropical cyclone frequency over the western North Pacific (WNP) in summer is preliminarily investigated through an analysis of ob- served data. The result has shown clearly that APO is significantly and positively correlated to the tropical cyclone frequency in the WNP. If APO is above (below) the normal in summer, more (less) tropical cyclones will tend to appear in the WNP. The present study also addresses the large-scale at- mospheric general circulation changes underlying the linkage between APO and the WNP tropical cy- clone frequency. It follows that a positive phase of summer APO is concurrent with weakened as well as northward and eastward located western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH), low-level convergence and high-level divergence, and reduced vertical zonal wind shear in the WNP, providing favorable envi- ronment for the tropical cyclone genesis, and thus more tropical cyclones will come into being, and vice versa.     

A two-way nested coupled tide-surge model for the Taiwan Strait

A two-way nested coupled tide-surge prediction model was established and applied in the Taiwan Strait and adjacent sea area in this study. This two-dimensional (2D) model had a fine horizontal resolution and took into account the interaction between storm surges and astronomical tides, which made it suitable for depicting the complicated physical properties of storm surges in the Taiwan Strait. A two-way nesting technique and an open boundary condition developed from Flather's radiation condition and Røed and Smedstad's local mode idea, were successfully implemented in the model. A simulation experiment showed that the open boundary condition could be used in the coupled tide-surge model and that the performance of the two-way nested model was slightly superior in accuracy to that of the one-way nested one.The fluctuations of storm surge residuals with tidal period at Sansha and Pingtan tide stations during the period of typhoon Dan in 1999 were well reproduced by the model, with the coupling effect between storm surges and tides indicating that the effect of astronomical tides upon typhoon surges should be considered in a storm-surge prediction model for the Taiwan Strait. The forecast experiment during typhoon Talim in 2005 showed that the storm surge prediction outputs by the model were better in the early 20 h of the forecast period of each model run than those in the later period due to the prediction accuracy of the typhoon track, maximum winds, and central air pressures.     

Will typhoon over the western North Pacific be more frequent in the Blue Arctic conditions?

How would typhoon activity over the western North Pacific change for various scenarios of future global warming?Using the model projections of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3(CMIP 3)under the SRES A1B scenario,we generated summer(September)ice-free Arctic conditions,also referred to as Blue Arctic conditions,and then used the corresponding monthly sea surface temperature(SST)and a set of CO2concentrations to drive an AGCM model to simulate the resulting changes in background conditions affecting typhoon activity over the western North Pacific.Our results show that,during typhoon season(June to October),atmospheric and ocean circulations over the western North Pacific would be significantly different from the present circulations.Changes in the vertical shear of zonal wind and outgoing longwave radiation(OLR)in the western North Pacific are favorable for westward and northward shift,respectively,of the location of typhoon genesis.Moreover,changes in the above fields over the key area may be conducive to less frequent typhoons.In addition,the tropical cyclone genesis potential index(GPI)over the western North Pacific would decrease(increase)east(west)of 150°E(140°E).     

Nonlinear local Lyapunov exponent and atmospheric predictability research

Because atmosphere itself is a nonlinear system and there exist some problems using the linearized equations to study the initial error growth, in this paper we try to use the error nonlinear growth theory to discuss its evolution, based on which we first put forward a new concept: nonlinear local Lyapunov exponent. It is quite different from the classic Lyapunov exponent because it may characterize the finite time error local average growth and its value depends on the initial condition, initial error, variables, evolution time, temporal and spatial scales. Based on its definition and the at-mospheric features, we provide a reasonable algorithm to the exponent for the experimental data, obtain the atmospheric initial error growth in finite time and gain the maximal prediction time. Lastly, taking 500 hPa height field as example, we discuss the application of the nonlinear local Lyapunov exponent in the study of atmospheric predictability and get some reliable results: atmospheric predictability has a distinct spatial structure. Overall, predictability shows a zonal distribution. Prediction time achieves the maximum over tropics, the second near the regions of Antarctic, it is also longer next to the Arctic and in subtropics and the mid-latitude the predictability is lowest. Particularly speaking, the average prediction time near the equation is 12 days and the maximum is located in the tropical Indian, Indonesia and the neighborhood, tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, on these regions the prediction time is about two weeks. Antarctic has a higher predictability than the neighboring latitudes and the prediction time is about 9 days. This feature is more obvious on Southern Hemispheric summer. In Arctic, the predictability is also higher than the one over mid-high latitudes but it is not pronounced as in Antarctic. Mid-high latitude of both Hemispheres (30°S―60°S, 30°―60°N) have the lowest predictability and the mean prediction time is just 3―4 d. In addition, predictability varies with the seasons. Most regions in the Northern Hemisphere, the predictability in winter is higher than that in summer, especially in the mid-high latitude: North Atlantic, North Pacific and Greenland Island. However in the Southern Hemisphere, near the Antarctic regions (60°S―90°S), the corresponding summer has higher predictability than its winter, while in other areas especially in the latitudes of 30°S―60°S, the prediction does not change obviously with the seasons and the average time is 3―5 d. Both the theoretical and data computation results show that nonlinear local Lyapunov exponent and the nonlinear local error growth really may measure the predictability of the atmospheric variables in different temporal and spatial scales.     

Important role of the ENSO combination mode in the maintenance of the anomalous anticyclone over the western North Pacific in boreal summer

Science China Earth Sciences - This study demonstrates the main physical mechanism for the maintenance of the western North Pacific (WNP) anomalous anticyclone (WNPAC) during the El Niño...     

Predicting dissolved oxygen in the Chesapeake Bay: applications and implications

Eutrophic depletion of dissolved oxygen (DO) and its consequences for ecosystem dynamics have been a central theme of research, assessment and management policies for several decades in the Chesapeake Bay. Ongoing forecast efforts predict the extent of the summer hypoxic/anoxic area due to nutrient loads from the watershed. However, these models neither predict DO levels nor address the intricate interactions among various ecological processes. The prediction of spatially explicit DO levels in the Chesapeake Bay can eventually lead to a reliable depiction of the comprehensive ecological structure and functioning, and can also allow the quantification of the role of nutrient reduction strategies in water quality management. In this paper, we describe a three dimensional empirical model to predict DO levels in the Chesapeake Bay as a function of water temperature, salinity and dissolved nutrient concentrations (TDN and TDP). The residual analysis shows that predicted DO values compare well with observations. Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) and root mean square error-observations standard deviation ratio (RSR) are used to evaluate the performance of the empirical model; the scores demonstrate the usability of model predictions (NSE, surface layer = 0.82–0.86; middle layer = 0.65–0.82; bottom layer = 0.70–0.82; RSR surface layer = 0.37–0.44; middle layer = 0.43–0.58 and bottom layer = 0.43–0.54). The predicted DO values and other physical outputs from downscaling of regional weather and climate predictions, or forecasts from hydrodynamic models, can be used to forecast various ecological components. Such forecasts would be useful for both recreational and commercial users of the Chesapeake Bay.     

VLF electromagnetic background in the seismoactive area of Northern Vietnam

The preliminary results of observations of VLF electromagnetic signals (atmospherics) in the mountains of North Vietnam (Dien Bien Phu, 21°23′50″ N, 103°0′28″ E) are presented. Primarily, signals of typical atmospherics with a maximum in the frequency range of 4–9 kHz were observed; sometimes they were accompanied by so-called “tails” at frequencies less than 1 kHz, and also tweeks of usually short duration (about 10 ms) were observed. Several parameters of the ionosphere, as well as the distance to sources of atmospherics (in accordance to the data of the World Wide Lightning Location Network (TOGA)), were estimated by spectral-temporal characteristics of tweeks.     

An Objective Approach for Prediction of Daily Summer Monsoon Rainfall over Orissa (India) due to Interaction of Mesoscale and Large-scale Synoptic Systems

Orissa State, a meteorological subdivision of India, lies on the east coast of India close to north Bay of Bengal and to the south of the normal position of the monsoon trough. The monsoon disturbances such as depressions and cyclonic storms mostly develop to the north of 15° N over the Bay of Bengal and move along the monsoon trough. As Orissa lies in the southwest sector of such disturbances, it experiences very heavy rainfall due to the interaction of these systems with mesoscale convection sometimes leading to flood. The orography due to the Eastern Ghat and other hill peaks in Orissa and environs play a significant role in this interaction. The objective of this study is to develop an objective statistical model to predict the occurrence and quantity of precipitation during the next 24 hours over specific locations of Orissa, due to monsoon disturbances over north Bay and adjoining west central Bay of Bengal based on observations to up 0300 UTC of the day. A probability of precipitation (PoP) model has been developed by applying forward stepwise regression with available surface and upper air meteorological parameters observed in and around Orissa in association with monsoon disturbances during the summer monsoon season (June-September). The PoP forecast has been converted into the deterministic occurrence/non-occurrence of precipitation forecast using the critical value of PoP. The parameters selected through stepwise regression have been considered to develop quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF) model using multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) for categorical prediction of precipitation in different ranges such as 0.1–10, 11–25, 26–50, 51–100 and >100 mm if the occurrence of precipitation is predicted by PoP model. All the above models have been developed based on data of summer monsoon seasons of 1980–1994, and data during 1995–1998 have been used for testing the skill of the models. Considering six representative stations for six homogeneous regions in Orissa, the PoP model performs very well with percentages of correct forecast for occurrence/non-occurrence of precipitation being about 96% and 88%, respectively for developmental and independent data. The skill of the QPF model, though relatively less, is reasonable for lower ranges of precipitation. The skill of the model is limited for higher ranges of precipitation. accepted September 2006     

Development,implementation, and skill assessment of the NOAA/NOS Great Lakes Operational Forecast System

The NOAA Great Lakes Operational Forecast System (GLOFS) uses near-real-time atmospheric observations and numerical weather prediction forecast guidance to produce three-dimensional forecasts of water temperature and currents, and two-dimensional forecasts of water levels of the Great Lakes. This system, originally called the Great Lakes forecasting system (GLFS), was developed at The Ohio State University and NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) in 1989. In 1996, a workstation version of the GLFS was ported to GLERL to generate semi-operational nowcasts and forecasts daily. In 2004, GLFS went through rigorous skill assessment and was transitioned to the National Ocean Service (NOS) Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) in Silver Spring, MD. GLOFS has been making operational nowcasts and forecasts at CO-OPS since September 30, 2005. Hindcast, nowcast, and forecast evaluations using the NOS-developed skill assessment software tool indicated both surface water levels and temperature predictions passed the NOS specified criteria at a majority of the validation locations with relatively low root mean square error (4–8 cm for water levels and 0.5 to 1°C for surface water temperatures). The difficulty of accurately simulating seiches generated by storms (in particular in shallow lakes like Lake Erie) remains a major source of error in water level prediction and should be addressed in future improvements of the forecast system.     

Tropical cyclone activity in the northwestern Pacific associated with decaying Central Pacific El Niños

In this study, a comparative analysis was performed to reveal the relationship between the three types of temporal evolution of the Central Pacific (CP) El Niño (prolonged, abrupt, and symmetric decay) in the tropical Pacific Ocean and tropical cyclone (TC) activity in the Western North Pacific (WNP). TCs in the WNP were found to be sensitive to the different types of temporal evolution of the CP El Niño. During years of prolonged and symmetric decay, TCs were more frequent over East Asia with relatively strong TCs. In contrast, during years of abrupt decay, weak TCs with a relatively short lifespan more likely formed at slightly higher latitudes. The historical record of CP El Niño events is limited, but this study is expected to improve the understanding of complex natural systems and provide fundamental information for the scientific understanding and forecasting of TCs.     

An integrated decision method for prediction of tropical cyclone movement by using genetic algorithm

Typhoon disaster is one of the most influentialnatural disasters. The strong storm surge of Bangla-desh cyclone, which happened in November 1970,resulted in 300000 deaths. Asia and the western Pa-cific can be regarded as an area where is affected mostseverely by the disasters of tropical storms[1]. Themost important thing is to improve the accuracy oftyphoon tracks prediction internationally. Lande-sea,C.[2] pointed out that for a successful forecast oftropic cyclone (TC) tracks, it is not …     

Towards a new reference ground motion prediction equation for Italy: update of the Sabetta–Pugliese (1996)

A revised Italian strong motion archive has become available since July 2007, including all the records of the strongest events occurred from 1972 to 2004. It contains the uncorrected and corrected accelerograms and the metadata relevant to seismic events, recording stations and instruments added after a careful revision. The availability of this archive allowed us to perform a first step towards an update of the reference ground motion prediction equations for Italy, which were evaluated by Sabetta and Pugliese in (Bull Seismol Soc Am 77:1491–1513, 1987), for peak ground acceleration and velocity, and subsequently extended to the 5% damped pseudovelocity response spectra in 1996. A subset with the 27 major earthquakes occurred in Italy from 1972 to 2002, in the magnitude range 4.6–6.9, was extracted and 235 good quality waveforms were selected, recorded at distances up to 183 km. The goodness of fit of the Sabetta and Pugliese (Bull Seismol Soc Am 86:337–352, 1996) model was explored using two independent statistical approaches (Spudich et al. Bull Seismol Soc Am 89:1156–1170, 1999 and Scherbaum et al. Bull Seismol Soc Am 94:2164–2185, 2004). The results obtained show that the Sabetta and Pugliese (Bull Seismol Soc Am 77:1491–1513, 1987) does not adequately fit the new strong-motion data set, for its small standard deviation and its non-zero bias. In particular, the most noteworthy result is that the Sabetta and Pugliese (Bull Seismol Soc Am 77:1491–1513, 1987) over-predicts peak ground acceleration and velocity at rock sites. New coefficients for the prediction of horizontal peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity and acceleration response spectra, adopting the same functional form in Sabetta and Pugliese (Bull Seismol Soc Am 77:1491–1513, 1987), were then evaluated in order to fit the new data set. This paper illustrates the steps made to update the existing ground motion prediction equations for Italy, discusses their limitations and provides the basis for future developments.     

Improvement of hydrodynamic forecasting of Danish waters: impact of low-frequency North Atlantic barotropic variations

The Danish Maritime Safety Administration (DaMSA) provides forecast of elevations, currents, and other parameters to the maritime society. Accurate and reliable predictions are important to help navigate Danish waters in a safe manner, and the forecasts are routinely used by the Vessel Traffic Services in the Great Belt and the Sound. The DaMSA model setup includes three nested models, with coarse resolution in the North Atlantic and increasing to 600 m in the Belt Sea and South West Baltic. Observations of some special events in late 2009 drew attention to a possible relation between Atlantic-scale surge events and small-scale currents in the Danish Straits. During the special event with large-scale surge, the observed southward moving current in the Danish Straits was 0.5–2.0 m/s for several days, while the operational model showed a much smaller response. As a consequence, the entire DaMSA model complex was revised during 2010. Multi-annual reruns have showed that with the updated model, the explained variance of the current increases from 67% to 88%.     

Numerical study of the barotropic responses to a rapidly moving typhoon in the East China Sea

Barotropic responses of the East China Sea to typhoon KOMPASU are investigated using a high-resolution, three-dimensional, primitive equation, and finite volume coastal ocean model. Even the fact that the typhoon KOMPASU only brushed across the brink of China mainland without landing, it still imposed great influence across China's east coastal area, where storm surges ranging from 35 to 70 cm were intrigued during this event and a large wake of water setdown due to the outward radial transport driven by the cyclonic wind stress was generated after the KOMPASU traveled across the Yellow Sea. Analysis of the numerical results reveals that the barotropic waves propagating along the coast after the typhoon's landing can be identified as Kelvin wave and the currents associated with the storm are geostrophic currents. A series of model runs are initiated to diagnose the effects of wind stress, atmospheric pressure, and storm track variation on the surge's spatial distribution in the East China Sea. The barotropic waves affected by the atmospheric disturbance due to the typhoon in deep Pacific Ocean travel far more rapidly, arriving at the coastal regions at least 60 h ahead of the typhoon. The wave amplitudes are merely 0.2–0.4 cm and damp gradually due to friction. The model experiments also confirm that the surge levels in nearshore regions are highly dominated by winds, whereas the water level variations in deeper areas are controlled by the atmospheric pressure forcing during typhoon events in the East China Sea.