IMPACT OF LARGE-SCALE CIRCULATION ON THE INTERDECADAL VARIATIONS OF THE WESTERN NORTH PACIFIC TROPICAL CYCLONE

Abstract:

Based on the annual frequency data of tropical cyclones from 1960 to 2005 and by the polynomial fit and statistical analysis, this work has discovered that TC activity in the 46a exhibits significant decadal- scale variability. It has two high frequency periods (HFP) and two low frequency periods (LFP). Significant differences in the number of TCs between HFP and LFP are found in active TC seasons from July to October. Differences of large-scale circulation during HFP and LFP have been investigated with NCEP/NOAA data for the season. In HFP, the condition includes not only higher sea surface temperature,lower sea level pressure, larger divergence of upper air, larger relative vorticity at low levels and smaller vertical shear, but also 500-hPa wind vector being more available for TC activity and moving to western North Pacific, the position of the subtropical anticyclone over the western Pacific shifting more northward,and South Asian Anticyclone at 100-hPa being much smaller than that in LFP. The precipitation of western North Pacific has no clear influence on TC activity.