PRELIMINARY STUDY ON STRUCTURE OF WINTERTIME TYPHOON NANMADOL IN 2004

Abstract:

Using NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, the structure of a wintertime typhoon named Nanmadol that landed on Taiwan 4 December, 2004 has been examined in this paper, it is found that Nanmadol looks similar in structure and time evolution to summer typhoons; the central part of it is warm and humid, and the convergence is observed in the lower troposphere while there is divergence in the upper troposphere. The differences between wintertime and summertime typhoons are found. The southwest stream flow in the lower troposphere and cyclonic disturbance in the upper troposphere seem significantly weaker in Nanmadol than in summertime typhoons. The EOF analysis performed for sea level pressure (SLP) of Nanmadol shows that about 90% of the total variance of temporal changes in typhoon circulation can be explained by two leading EOF modes of EOF1 and EOF2. EOF1 shows the structure and intensity variations of Nanmadol while EOF2 shows the changes in environmental SLP distributions that influences the moving direction of Nanmadol.