Applications of situation-dependent intensity and intensity spread predictions based on a weighted analog technique

A version of our situation-dependent intensity prediction (SDIP) is proposed for operational application after three modifications: (i) Ten historical track analogs are matched with Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) official track forecasts rather than besttracks; (ii) Giving two times as much weight to the 72 h — 120 h portion of the track as to the 0–72 h portion to give higher rankings for analog tracks with similar landfall or recurvature positions and timing; and (iii) Weighting both the intensity prediction technique and a new intensity spread guidance product according to new rankings of the track analogs rather than assuming all track analogs are equally likely. These special matchings and weightings of the track analogs in this weighted-analog intensity (WANI) add skill in the 72–120 h forecast intervals in regions where landfalls occur. Viability as an operational technique is demonstrated as the WANI has only 1 kt larger mean absolute errors than the JTWC intensity errors from 12 h through 72 h, and the WANI is 5 kt (20%) better at 120 h. The WANI rank-weighted intensity spreads each 12 h among the 10 best historical track analogs are processed to reduce any intensity bias and calibrated to reduce (increase) the over-determined (under-determined) intensity spreads at early (later) forecast intervals. Thus, the situation-dependent intensity spread guidance is generated that will include about 68% of the verifying intensities at all forecast intervals. Four examples of the WANI intensity predictions and intensity spread guidance are presented to illustrate how the forecaster might use this information in potential landfall and intensity bifurcation situations.     

Skill of western North Pacific tropical cyclone intensity forecast guidance relative to Weighted-Analog technique

The accuracy of the western North Pacific tropical cyclone intensity forecast guidance products available at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) is evaluated relative to a new skill metric called Weighted Analog Intensity Pacific (WAIP) that includes knowledge of the JTWC official track forecast and the current intensity, which is information that is available at the time the intensity forecast is generated. An intensity consensus technique called S5XX that includes statistical-dynamic intensity forecasts plus other dynamic and thermodynamic prediction techniques has statistically significant smaller errors than WAIP at 24 h and 48 h and has similar accuracy through 120 h. While the track consensus CONW is a critical input to the JTWC official track forecast, it has no skill relative to WAIP as an intensity forecast. Three regional numerical models also have no skill relative to WAIP, and especially at forecast intervals beyond 72 h because their mean absolute errors are statistically significantly larger than for WAIP. Furthermore, these regional models have statistically significant positive or negative intensity biases relative to the verifying intensities. However, an experimental consensus technique called CMES that includes these three regional models has small accuracy relative to WAIP in the 24 h to 72 h forecast intervals. Geographical-based comparisons of the intensity guidance products with the WAIP indicate almost all of the products are more accurate than WAIP over the South China Sea region. The statistical-dynamic consensus technique S5XX does have skill through 72 h for landfalling situations along the coasts of China and Southeast Asia. At 120 h, the WAIP has superior performance over the guidance products over most areas of the western North Pacific, but again the S5XX is more accurate than WAIP for landfalling tropical cyclones on the Philippine Islands, Southeast Asia, South China, and northeastern Japan. This information will be useful to the forecaster in deciding when and where (or how much) to rely on each guidance product in preparing the five-day intensity forecast once the official track forecast has been established.     

Improved tropical cyclone intensity and intensity spread prediction in bifurcation situations

Bifurcation or bi-modal tropical cyclone intensity forecasts may arise due to uncertainty in the timing of formation, timing and magnitude of rapid intensification periods, or track forecast uncertainty leading to landfall or non-landfall or leading to interaction with warm- or cold-ocean eddies. An objective technique is developed and tested to detect these intensity bifurcation situations in our weighted-analog intensity (WANI) forecasts that are based on the 10 best historical analogs to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) official track forecasts. About 19% of the overall sample of 1136 WANI forecasts in the western North Pacific during the 2010–2012 seasons met the criteria for a substantial intensity bifurcation situation. Using a hierarchical clustering technique, two clusters of the 10 best analogs are defined and separate WANI forecasts and intensity spreads are calculated for the two clusters. If an always perfect selection of the correct cluster WANI forecast of each bifurcation situation is made, a substantial improvement in the intensity mean absolute errors is achieved relative to the original WANI forecasts based on all 10 of the best analogs. These perfect-cluster selection WANI forecasts have smaller bias errors and are more highly correlated with the verifying intensities at all forecast intervals through 120 h. Without further bias correction and calibration, the cluster WANI intensity spreads are under-determined as the Probability of Detections are smaller than the desired 68%. Four examples of WANI cluster predictions of intensity bifurcation situations are provided to illustrate how a correct choice of the intensity forecast and the intensity spread can be the basis for improved warnings of the threat from western North Pacific tropical cyclones.     

Seven-Day Intensity and Intensity Spread Predictions in Bifurcation Situations with Guidance-On-Guidance for Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclones

An objective technique to detect and predict intensity bifurcation situations in a five-day Weighted Analog Intensity forecast technique for the western North Pacific (WAIP) has been extended to seven days. A hierarchical cluster analysis is applied to the N analog intensities to separate them into two clusters, which are considered to represent a substantial intensity bifurcation if a threshold maximum velocity difference of 15 kt is satisfied. Two important modifications have been made to develop the bifurcation version for seven-day WAIP forecasts. First, the number of track analogs has been increased from 10 analogs to 16 analogs, which results in larger sample sizes and better performance. Second, separate intensity bias corrections are calculated for the two cluster WAIP forecasts rather than using the same 16-analog intensity bias correction. If an always perfect selection of the correct cluster WAIP forecast of each bifurcation situation is made, a substantial improvement in the intensity mean absolute errors is achieved relative to the original WAIP forecasts based on all 16 of the best analogs. These perfect-cluster selection WAIP forecasts have smaller bias errors and are more highly correlated with the verifying intensities at all forecast intervals through 168 h. Furthermore, the Probability of Detection is improved for the perfect-cluster selection and more realistic intensity spreads are specified. A simple guidance-on-guidance technique is demonstrated to assist the forecasters in selecting the correct WAIP cluster forecast in bifurcation situations.     

数值模式的热带气旋强度预报订正及其集成应用

提供热带气旋强度预报产品的业务数值天气预报模式有很多,并已表现出一定的预报技巧,为提高对模式热带气旋强度预报产品的定量应用能力,分析2010—2012年7个业务数值模式的西北太平洋热带气旋强度预报,发现预报误差不仅受到模式热带气旋初始强度误差的显著影响,还与热带气旋及其所处环境的初始状况有密切关系,包括热带气旋初始强度、尺度、移速、环境气压、环境风切变、热带气旋发展潜势等。根据这些因子与各模式热带气旋强度预报误差之间的相关性,采用逐步回归方法建立热带气旋强度预报误差的统计预估模型,并通过逐个热带气旋滚动式建模来进行独立样本检验。检验结果表明,基于误差预估的模式订正预报比模式直接输出的热带气旋强度预报有显著改进,在此基础上建立的热带气旋强度多模式集成预报方案相对气候持续性预报方法在12 h有28%的正技巧,在24—72 h则稳定在15%—20%,具有业务参考价值。     

Evaluation of long-term trends in tropical cyclone intensity forecasts

Summary The National Hurricane Center and Joint Typhoon Warning Center operational tropical cyclone intensity forecasts for the three major northern hemisphere tropical cyclone basins (Atlantic, eastern North Pacific, and western North Pacific) for the past two decades are examined for long-term trends. Results show that there has been some marginal improvement in the mean absolute error at 24 and 48 h for the Atlantic and at 72 h for the east and west Pacific. A new metric that measures the percent variance of the observed intensity changes that is reduced by the forecast (variance reduction, VR) is defined to help account for inter-annual variability in forecast difficulty. Results show that there have been significant improvements in the VR of the official forecasts in the Atlantic, and some marginal improvement in the other two basins. The VR of the intensity guidance models was also examined. The improvement in the VR is due to the implementation of advanced statistical intensity prediction models and the operational version of the GFDL hurricane model in the mid-1990s. The skill of the operational intensity forecasts for the 5-year period ending in 2005 was determined by comparing the errors to those from simple statistical models with input from climatology and persistence. The intensity forecasts had significant skill out to 96 h in the Atlantic and out to 72 h in the east and west Pacific. The intensity forecasts are also compared to the operational track forecasts. The skill was comparable at 12 h, but the track forecasts were 2 to 5 times more skillful by 72 h. The track and intensity forecast error trends for the two-decade period were also compared. Results showed that the percentage track forecast improvement was almost an order of magnitude larger than that for intensity, indicating that intensity forecasting still has much room for improvement.     

2009年夏季西太平洋台风路径和强度的多模式集成预报

基于TIGGE资料中的中国气象局、欧洲中期天气预报中心、日本气象厅和英国气象局等四个中心的2009年5月1日-8月31日台风预报资料,利用多模式集合平均、消除偏差集合平均和加权消除偏差集合平均等方法,对2009年8月1-31日预报期的西太平洋的台风路径和强度(中心气压)进行24～ 72 h预报时效的多模式集成预报,并对0907号台风“天鹅”和0908号台风“莫拉克”进行个例分析.结果表明:各中心对于不同时效的预报,预报技巧有明显差异.消除偏差集合平均与加权消除偏差集合平均显著地减小了预报误差,预报效果优于最好的单个中心预报和多模式集合平均.对于24 ～ 72 h预报,加权消除偏差集合平均方法始终表现出最好的预报性能.     

A study of the connection between tropical cyclone track and intensity errors in the WRF model

This study examines the dependence of the tropical cyclone (TC) intensity errors on the track errors in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF-ARW) model. By using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction global final analysis as the initial and boundary conditions for cloud-resolving simulations of TC cases that have small track errors, it is found that the 2- and 3-day intensity errors in the North Atlantic basin can be reduced to 15 and 19 % when the track errors decrease to 55 and 76 %, respectively, whereas the 1-day intensity error shows no significant reduction despite more than 30 % decrease of the 1-day track error. For the North-Western Pacific basin, the percentage of intensity reduction is somewhat similar with the 2- and 3-day intensity errors improved by about 15 and 19 %, respectively. This suggests that future improvement of the TC track forecast skill in the WRF-ARW model will be beneficial to the intensity forecast. However, the substantially smaller percentages of intensity improvement than those of the track error improvement indicate that ambient environment tends to play a less important role in determining the TC intensity as compared to other factors related to the vortex initialization or physics representations in the WRF-ARW model.     

垂直分层加密和预报区域扩大对GRAPES_TYM台风预报的影响

为提升GRAPES_TYM对西北太平洋和中国南海热带气旋路径及强度的预报能力、增加对北印度洋热带气旋的预报,2019年8月GRAPES_TYM 3.0版投入业务运行。GRAPES_TYM 3.0版的模式垂直分层由GRAPES_TYM 2.2版的50层增加到68层;预报区域由覆盖西北太平洋、中国南海扩展到覆盖北印度洋。试验结果显示:模式垂直分层增加可以改进模式对强台风及超强台风的预报能力,减小平均路径预报误差、显著减小平均强度预报误差以及强度预报负偏差;模式预报区域扩大到覆盖北印度洋对平均路径误差和平均强度误差影响不显著,但长时效预报比较敏感,如20°N以北热带气旋120 h预报路径。2016—2018年的回算结果与NCEP-GFS和ECMWF的预报结果对比分析表明:GRAPES_TYM 3.0版的平均路径误差与NCEP-GFS接近,同ECMWF相比误差较大;但24—96 h强度预报误差明显小于NCEP-GFS和ECMWF,NCEP-GFS和ECMWF对热带气旋强度预报存在明显的负偏差。综上所述,模式垂直分层由50层增加到68层对热带气旋强度预报至关重要,而长时效路径预报对模式预报区域扩大到覆盖北印度洋更为敏感。      

Evaluation of Tropical Cyclone Intensity Forecasts from Five Global EnsemblePrediction Systems During 2015-2019

This study presented an evaluation of tropical cyclone (TC) intensity forecasts from five global ensemble prediction systems (EPSs) during 2015-2019 in the western North Pacific region. Notable error features include the underestimation of the TC intensity by ensemble mean forecast and the under-dispersion of the probability forecasts.The root mean square errors (brier scores) of the ensemble mean (probability forecasts) generally decrease consecutively at long lead times during the five years, but fluctuate between certain values at short lead times.Positive forecast skill appeared in the most recent two years (2018-2019) at 120 h or later as compared with the climatology forecasts. However, there is no obvious improvement for the intensity change forecasts during the 5-yearperiod, with abrupt intensity change remaining a big challenge. The probability forecasts show no skill for strongTCs at all the lead times. Among the five EPSs, ECMWF-EPS ranks the best for the intensity forecast, while NCEP-GEFS ranks the best for the intensity change forecast, according to the evaluation for ensemble mean and dispersion. As for the other probability forecast evaluation, ECMWF-EPS ranks the best at lead times shorter than 72 h, while NCEP-GEFS ranks the best later on.     

热带气旋奇异向量在GRAPES全球集合预报中的初步应用

基于副热带奇异向量的初值扰动方法已应用于GRAPES （Global and Regional Assimilation PrEdiction System）全球集合预报系统,但存在热带气旋预报路径离散度不足的问题。通过分析发现,热带气旋附近区域初值扰动结构不合理导致预报集合不能较好地估计热带气旋预报的不确定性,是路径集合离散度不足的可能原因之一。通过建立热带气旋奇异向量求解方案,将热带气旋奇异向量和副热带奇异向量共同线性组合生成初值扰动,以弥补热带气旋区域初值扰动结构不合理这一缺陷,进而改进热带气旋集合预报效果。利用GRAPES全球奇异向量计算方案,以台风中心10个经纬度区域为目标区构建热带气旋奇异向量求解方案,针对台风“榕树”个例进行集合预报试验,并开展批量试验,利用中国中央气象台最优台风路径和中国国家气象信息中心的降水观测资料进行检验,对比分析热带气旋奇异向量结构特征和初值扰动特征,评估热带气旋奇异向量对热带气旋路径集合预报和中国区域24 h累计降水概率预报技巧的影响。结果表明,热带气旋奇异向量具有局地化特征,使用热带气旋奇异向量之后,热带气旋路径离散度增加,路径集合平均预报误差和离散度的关系得到改善,路径集合平均预报误差有所减小,集合成员更好地描述了热带气旋路径的预报不确定性;中国台风降水的小雨、中雨、大雨、暴雨各量级24 h累计降水概率预报技巧均有一定提高。总之,当在初值扰动的生成中考虑热带气旋奇异向量后,可改进热带气旋初值扰动结果,并有助于改善热带气旋路径集合预报效果。      

2015年6—8月T639、ECMWF及日本模式中期预报性能检验

对2015年6—8月T639、ECMWF及日本（文中简称EC和JP）数值模式的中期预报产品进行了对比分析和检验,结果表明：三个模式对亚洲中高纬环流形势的调整和演变具有较好的预报性能,其中EC模式的预报效果最好。EC模式对西太平洋副热带高压的预报较为准确,T639模式的预报与实况存在一定偏差。三个模式均能较好地预报出2015年7月新疆持续性高温天气,且对北方地区850 hPa温度的预报较零场均偏高。在南方地区,三个模式预报的温度偏差比北方地区小,EC模式的预报效果优于T639和JP模式。对于1513号台风苏迪罗,T639模式较好地预报了台风的登陆位置和路径变化,强度预报略偏强,而EC模式预报的台风登陆时间偏早。     

T639台风预报误差与环境场变量的相关分析和回归分析

利用国家气象中心全球谱模式T639L60(简称T639)数值预报结果和上海台风研究所整编的台风最佳路径数据,基于2009—2010年的样本,分析了西北太平洋和南海台风的环境场预报变量与路径预报误差的相关性,利用线性回归分析,建立了T639台风中心预报误差与环境风整层垂直切变、400 hPa台风环流强度的24~120 h各预报时效线性预估模型(建模样本数分别为299、232、170、117和84个),并利用2011年的样本对模型进行了检验(检验样本数分别为182、146、117、85和61个)。初步结果表明,环境风垂直切变与路径误差呈正相关,台风各层环流强度与路径误差大致呈负相关,其中400 hPa上的负相关性最明显;由环境风垂直切变与400 hPa台风环流强度建立的线性预估模型能对路径预报误差作出定性估计,其中24h预报时效的预估模型有较好的预估效果。     

利用神经网络方法建立热带气旋强度预报模型

以神经网络方法为基础,建立西北太平洋热带气旋强度预测模型,模型首先进行历史相似热带气旋选择。从选择的样本出发,计算得到一组气候持续因子、天气学经验因子和动力学因子, 对这些因子采用逐步回归方法进行筛选,将筛选得到的因子同对应时效的热带气旋强度输入神经网络训练模块,从而得到优化的预测模型。从2004-2005年西北太平洋26个热带气旋过程对12,24,36,48,72h等不同预报时效分别进行的634,582,530,478,426次预测试验结果的统计来看,相对于线性回归模型预测水平,该模型显著降低了各时段的预测误差。从几个热带气旋个例的预测结果来看, 该模型对超强台风, 以及具有强度迅速加强、再次加强等特征的热带气旋过程均有很好的描述能力。     

COMPARISONS OF EOF AND CCA METHODS IN EXPERIMENTS WITH TYPHOON TRACK

A predictive model for 24-120 h track of the tropical cyclone over the South ChinaSea is set upusing the predictors of CLIPER and with reference to those of EOF and CCA. This EOF-and CCA-basedmodel is compared with dependent and independent samples in veritring forecasts'Analpees appltwg themethods to 500-hPa geopotential heights have shown that the CCA method is able toconcentrate moreoriginal information of variable fleld that has the best global correlation withtropical cyclone track andthus reduces more efficiently error arisen in forecast,despite that can0nicaldistribution of weighted vari-able coefficients derived by it is less well-defined or smoothed of a spacialpattern as is done by eigenvec-tor in the EOF method. The verification indicates a certain degree of skill in both track predictive model,though better results are yielded in the CCA-based one, whose mean vector errorare 159.27, 314.84,524.12, 813.03, and 987.12 km, respectively for periods of 24, 48, 72, 96, and 120 h. The modelmakes an objective approach for prediction of short-and medium-range track of tropical cyclone in theSouth China Sea.     

Evaluation of a Regional Ensemble Data Assimilation System for Typhoon Prediction

An ensemble Kalman filter(EnKF) combined with the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting model(WRF) is cycled and evaluated for western North Pacific(WNP) typhoons of year 2016. Conventional in situ data, radiance observations, and tropical cyclone(TC) minimum sea level pressure(SLP) are assimilated every 6 h using an 80-member ensemble. For all TC categories, the 6-h ensemble priors from the WRF/EnKF system have an appropriate amount of variance for TC tracks but have insufficient v...     

基于雷达外推临近预报和中尺度数值预报融合技术的短时定量降水预报试验

为克服目前中尺度数值模式在对流尺度定量降水短时预报方面的不足,弥补基于“外推”的临近预报技术在2h以上定量降水预报能力方面的缺陷,研究设计了一种基于“外推”临近预报技术和中尺度数值模式的定量降水预报(QPF)融合技术方案,并进行了试验应用.该方案首先基于雷达探测和自动气象站观测的定量降水估计(QPE)结果,对中尺度数值模式输出的定量降水预报在谱空间进行相位校正,分析计算出数值预报和观测的偏差,导出一个附加的数值预报校正场;其次,根据数值预报校正场满足一定时间变化分布的特征,调整相应时段的数值预报降水区域和强度;最后,利用双曲正切线权重函数,对校正后的数值模式定量降水预报和基于临近预报技术的定量降水预报进行融合,融合权重根据典型环流特征动态变化.融合后的定量降水预报在前1-2h表现出主要依赖“外推”临近预报结果,之后随着融合权重的变化,数值预报对融合结果的贡献逐渐加大,直至融合后5-6h占主导地位.通过对京津冀地区2011年夏季5个及2012年夏季2个典型强降水个例的80次预报试验及其检验,表明融合后的0-6h定量降水预报结果改进较为明显,总体优于单独的临近预报技术或者中尺度数值预报模式的结果.     

T213与T639模式热带气旋预报误差对比

应用国家气象中心全球谱模式T213L31(简称T213) 及其升级版本T639L60(简称T639) 对2009—2010年西北太平洋热带气旋数值预报的结果进行对比。结果表明:T213与T639模式24～120 h预报平均距离误差基本相近,但由于T639模式分辨率较高,T639模式的热带气旋强度预报明显好于T213模式。从分类误差来看,T639模式对于西北行登陆及转向热带气旋的路径预报好于T213模式,但对西行及北上热带气旋预报误差偏大。对于异常路径热带气旋预报,T639模式能较好预报环流形势的突然调整,对路径突变的热带气旋预报比T213模式有明显优势;从登陆类热带气旋预报的移向误差来看,T213模式存在东北偏北向系统性偏差,T639模式存在东北偏东向系统性偏差。     

2016年GRAPES_TYM改进及对台风预报影响

为了进一步提高国家气象中心区域模式台风数值预报系统（GRAPES_TYM）的预报能力,2016年对模式参考大气廓线以及涡旋初始化方案进行了改进:由模式初始场水平方向平均的一维参考大气代替原来的等温大气,涡旋初始化方案取消了原涡旋重定位并将涡旋强度调整半径由原来的12°减小到4°。对2014—2016年的生命史超过3 d的所有台风进行了回算,路径及近地面最大风速统计误差分析表明:参考大气的改进可以减小模式对台风预报路径预报的系统北偏和平均路径误差,尤其是140°E以东的转向台风。涡旋初始化方案中强度调整半径的减小会进一步减小模式预报路径的北偏趋势,从而进一步减小平均误差。同业务系统预报结果相比,改进后的GRAPES_TYM（包括参考大气和涡旋初始化）可以使平均路径误差分别减小10%（24 h）,12%（48 h）,16%（72 h）,14%（96 h）以及15%（120 h）。同美国NCEP全球模式路径预报相比,GRAPES_TYM在西行、西北行登陆我国的台风路径预报有一定优势。     

我国台风路径业务预报误差及成因分析

利用2005 2009年中国气象局(CMA)提供的西北太平洋(包括南海)台风路径业务预报资料,比较了各类型台风路径、台风登陆位置及登陆时间的预报误差,登陆台风不同阶段以及华东登陆和华南登陆台风的路径预报误差。结果表明:CMA在2005 2009年的路径预报水平与1999 2003年的相比有了显著提高。平均南海台风预报误差大于西北太平洋。异常路径台风主要出现于南海,三个预报时效(24、48和72 h)异常路径的预报误差平均都小于正常路径。将登陆台风分为远海、登陆期间和登陆后三个阶段,显示登陆期间台风预报误差最大,同一阶段华南登陆台风的预报误差大于华东登陆台风。台风登陆位置在24、48和72 h预报时效的平均预报误差分别为71.1、122.6和210.6 km,48和72 h台风实际登陆时间有70%早于预报时间,平均分别提早8和12 h。比较大尺度引导气流与台风移动的偏差及24 h路径预报误差,得到南海三种典型登陆台风路径的大尺度引导气流与台风移动的偏差及其与路径预报误差的关系不一样,即误差成因不同。南海倒抛物线型的大尺度引导气流与台风移动的偏差最大,其预报误差最小;西一西北型的大尺度引导气流与台风移动的偏差最小,其预报误差最大,可能与大尺度环流预报准确性差有关。登陆华东的预报误差小于登陆华南台风的预报误差,这与台风登陆华南时其大尺度引导气流和台风移动的偏差大于登陆华东的台风有关。