K-MEANS CLUSTERING FOR CLASSIFICATION OF THE NORTHWESTERN PACIFIC TROPICAL CYCLONE TRACKS

Based on the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) best-track dataset between 1965 and 2009 and the characteristic parameters including tropical cyclone (TC) position, intensity, path length and direction, a method for objective classification of the Northwestern Pacific tropical cyclone tracks is established by using K-means Clustering. The TC lifespan, energy, active season and landfall probability of seven clusters of tropical cyclone tracks are comparatively analyzed. The characteristics of these parameters are quite different among different tropical cyclone track clusters. From the trend of the past two decades, the frequency of the western recurving cluster (accounting for 21.3% of the total) increased, and the lifespan elongated slightly, which differs from the other clusters. The annual variation of the Power Dissipation Index (PDI) of most clusters mainly depended on the TC intensity and frequency. However, the annual variation of the PDI in the northwestern moving then recurving cluster and the pelagic west-northwest moving cluster mainly depended on the frequency.