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Impact of the cross-tropopause wind shear on tropical cyclone genesis over the Western North Pacific in May

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Abstract

The role of the 50- to 200-hPa zonal wind shear in modulating tropical cyclone (TC) genesis over the western North Pacific (WNP) in May is investigated in this study. Concurrent with the strong cross-tropopause shear over the key region (0°–5°N, 160°–180°E), suppressed convection was observed over the tropical WNP, especially over the South China Sea and the Philippines. The monsoon trough (MT) was confined westward. However, enhanced convection occurred in the weak shear years and the MT extended eastward. This cross-tropopause wind shear is negatively correlated with TC genesis in May, with a decreased (increased) number of TCs corresponding to strong (weak) cross-tropopause wind shear.

This cross-tropopause wind shear can be treated as the combined impacts of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events and the stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO). When decaying El Niño events coupled with the easterly phase of the QBO were noted, the cross-tropopause wind shear was stronger with weakened convection, and an enhanced western Pacific subtropical high was observed. TCs are rarely generated during these years. In contrast, the modulation of the QBO westerly phase on decaying La Niña events is limited. Affected by the QBO westerly phase, TC genesis in the May following La Niña events is only slightly enhanced. The energy analysis indicates that the combined impacts of the decaying El Niño events and the QBO easterly phase might suppress the barotropic eddy kinetic energy conversion in May, whereas the decaying La Niña events and the QBO west phase act in an opposite manner.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFA0600603), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 41705071, 41661144016, 41461164005, 41375065, 41230527).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Monsoon System Research, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2718, Beijing, 100190, China

    Jingliang Huangfu, Wen Chen & Ronghui Huang

  2. College of Earth Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Wen Chen & Ronghui Huang

  3. School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Maoqiu Jian

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  1. Jingliang Huangfu
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  2. Wen Chen
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  3. Maoqiu Jian
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Correspondence to Jingliang Huangfu.

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Huangfu, J., Chen, W., Jian, M. et al. Impact of the cross-tropopause wind shear on tropical cyclone genesis over the Western North Pacific in May. Clim Dyn 52, 3845–3855 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-018-4363-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-018-4363-4

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