RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TROPICAL ISO AND TROPICAL CYCLONE ACTIVITY OVER THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

Abstract:

The relationship between the tropical intra-seasonal oscillation (ISO) and tropical cyclones (TCs) activities over the South China Sea (SCS) is investigated by utilizing the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) global reanalysis data and tropical cyclone best-track data from 1949 to 2009. The main conclusions are: (1) A new ISO index is designed to describe the tropical ISO activity over the SCS, which can simply express ISO for SCS. After examining the applicability of the index constructed by the Climate Prediction Center (CPC), we find that the convection spatial scale reflected by this index is too large to characterize the small-scale SCS and fails to divide the TCs activities over the SCS into active and inactive categories. Consequently, the CPC index can’t replace the function of the new ISO index; (2) The eastward spread process of tropical ISO is divided into eight phases using the new ISO index, the phase variation of which corresponds well with the TCs activities over the SCS. TCs generation and landing are significantly reduced during inactive period (phase 4-6) relative to that during active period (phase 7-3); (3) The composite analyses indicate distinct TCs activities over the SCS, which is consistent with the concomitant propagation of the ISO convective activity. During ISO active period, the weather situations are favorable for TCs development over the SCS, e.g., strong convection, cyclonic shear and weak subtropical high, and vice versa; (4) The condensation heating centers, strong convection and water vapor flux divergence are well collocated with each other during ISO active period. In addition, the vertical profile of condensation heat indicates strong ascending motion and middle-level heating over the SCS during active period, and vice versa. Thus, the eastward propagation of tropical ISO is capable to modulate TCs activities by affecting the heating configuration over the SCS.