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Impacts of the two types of El Niño on Pacific tropical cyclone activity

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Abstract

It is well known that Tropical cyclone (TC) activities over the Pacific are affected by El Niño events. In most studies El Niño phenomena have been separated into east Pacific warming (EPW) and central Pacific warming (CPW) based on the location of maximum SST anomaly. Since these two kinds of El Niño have different impacts on Pacific tropical cyclone activities, this study investigates different features of TC activities and the genesis potential index (GPI) during EPW years and CPW years. Four contributing factors, i.e., the low-level absolute vorticity, the relative humidity, the potential intensity and the vertical wind shear, are examined to determine which factors are most important in causing the anomalous TC activities. Our results show that during EPW years in July–August (JA0), TC activities are more frequent with stronger intensity over the Western North Pacific (WNP) and Eastern North Pacific (ENP). The maximum anomaly center of TC activities then drifts eastward significantly in September–October (SO0). However, centers of anomalous TC activity barely change from JA0 to SO0 during CPW years. In January-February-March (JFM1) of the decaying years of warming events, TC frequency and intensity both have positive anomaly over the South Pacific. The anomalies in EPW years have larger amplitude and wider spatial distribution than those in CPW years. These anomalous activities of TC are associated with GPI anomaly and the key factors affecting GPI anomaly for each ocean basin are quite different.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physical Oceanography Laboratory & Key Laboratory of Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction and Climate in Universities of Shandong, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, P. R. China

    Shibin Xu & Fei Huang

  2. International Pacific Research Center, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Shibin Xu

  3. Ningbo Collabrative Innovation Center of Nonlinear Harzard System of Ocean and Atmosphere, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, P. R. China

    Fei Huang

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  1. Shibin Xu
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  2. Fei Huang
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Correspondence to Fei Huang.

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Xu, S., Huang, F. Impacts of the two types of El Niño on Pacific tropical cyclone activity. J. Ocean Univ. China 14, 191–198 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-015-2421-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-015-2421-7

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