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Different El Niño types and intense typhoons in the Western North Pacific

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Abstract

This study shows that the occurrence of intense typhoons in the western North Pacific is significantly higher in the autumns of the Central Pacific (CP), compared to Eastern Pacific El Niño years. Specifically, (1) The higher occurrence of intense typhoons in CP El Niño autumns is related to a longer typhoon lifespan, maximum potential intensity, ocean heat content, vertical shear of the zonal wind (850–200 hPa), outgoing long-wave radiation, and moist static energy averaged over 1,000–500 hPa. (2) A longer typhoon lifespan in CP El Niño autumns is caused by the westward shift of the subtropical high, which tends to steer typhoon to the west and northwest.

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Acknowledgments

This research was jointly supported by the Geographical Modeling and Geocomputation program under the Focused Innovation Scheme of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Open Research Funding Program of KLGIS of Ministry of Education at East China Normal University (Grant No. KLGIS2012A04), the Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of NUIST, the Priority Academic Program Development (PAPD) of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Jiangsu Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholar (BK20140047) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 41201045).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth System Modeling Center (ESMC) and Climate Dynamics Research Center, Nanjing International Academy of Meteorological Sciences (NIAMS), Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster, Ministry of Education and Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Wei Zhang

  2. Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China

    Wei Zhang & Yee Leung

  3. Institute of Future Cities, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China

    Yee Leung

  4. Climate Change and Sustainability Laboratory, Shenzhen Research Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

    Yee Leung

  5. Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, KlimaCampus, Hamburg, Germany

    Klaus Fraedrich

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  1. Wei Zhang
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  2. Yee Leung
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  3. Klaus Fraedrich
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Correspondence to Yee Leung.

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Zhang, W., Leung, Y. & Fraedrich, K. Different El Niño types and intense typhoons in the Western North Pacific. Clim Dyn 44, 2965–2977 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2446-4

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