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Environmental conditions regulating the formation of super tropical cyclone during pre-monsoon transition period over Bay of Bengal

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Abstract

Deadliest tropical cyclones (TCs) with category 4 or 5 intensity, which are referred to super TCs (STCs), often take place in Bay of Bengal (BoB) during pre-monsoon transition period. These STCs are often synchronized with the first-branch northward-propagating intraseasonal oscillation (FNISO) over BoB, but not all TCs synchronizing with FNISO were able to develop into STCs. The study analyzes the distinctive environmental conditions for regular and super TC groups. From the intraseasonal background, the most important difference appears in the intensity and relative location of FNISO. A stronger and closer ISO would lead to a colder upper-level air temperature and thus a more unstable stratification which promotes a greater TC intensity. Similar to intraseasonal timescale, upper-level temperature on the interannual timescale is also colder in the STC cases. The combined intraseasonal and interannual environmental temperature difference between lower and upper troposphere are responsible for significant difference between the STC and TC cases.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the JTWC, NCEP/NCAR, ECMWF and NOAA for use of datasets. This study is sponsored by NSFC Grant 41406030, Basic Scientific Fund for National Public Research Institutes of China Grant 2018Q05 and China Scholarship Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Ocean and Climate Research, First Institute of Oceanography, SOA, Qingdao, 266061, China

    Zhi Li & Weidong Yu

  2. Laboratory for Regional Oceanography and Numerical Modeling, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266000, China

    Zhi Li, Tim Li & Weidong Yu

  3. International Pacific Research Center and Department of Meteorology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Tim Li

  4. Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster, Ministry of Education/Joint International Research Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Change/Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Tim Li

  5. National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center, SOA, Beijing, 100081, China

    Weidong Yu

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  1. Zhi Li
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  2. Tim Li
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Correspondence to Zhi Li.

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Li, Z., Li, T. & Yu, W. Environmental conditions regulating the formation of super tropical cyclone during pre-monsoon transition period over Bay of Bengal. Clim Dyn 52, 3857–3867 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-018-4365-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-018-4365-2

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