Abstract
In this study, the effects of surface exchange coefficients on simulations of Super Typhoon Megi (2010) are investigated using a fully coupled ocean-atmosphere-wave model. Several experiments are conducted using different parameterization schemes for the drag (CD) and enthalpy exchange (CK) coefficients. For the selected case, considering only the leveling-off of CD at high wind speeds does not effectively improve the simulated typhoon track, intensity, or size. We found that increasing CK monotonically with wind speed (Komori et al., 2018) yields stronger winds and deeper pressures by enhancing latent and sensible heat fluxes, but typhoon intensity remains underestimated. We propose a new higher CK than that from Komori et al. (2018) based on the theory of Emanuel (1995). This approach produces a greater modeled typhoon intensity that is in good agreement with the best track data and effectively improves the track error for the simulation. Improved accuracy for modeled typhoon intensity is achieved with the new coefficient because CK/CD reaches the threshold of about 0.75 predicted by Emanuel (1995). The new proposed CK also results in a reasonably accurate modeled sea surface temperature. However, typhoon size and surface wave height are overestimated. This finding implies that more numerical tests for tropical cyclones of different nature (such as strong, weak, dissipating, rapidly intensifying, or weakening tropical cyclones) should be studied, and more physical processes should be explored in future coupled models.
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Acknowledgements
The authors appreciate Dr. Qingxiang Liu for his suggestions for the manuscript. The efforts of the researchers who obtained and published the data or schemes used in this study are much appreciated. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41906014, U20A2099, and 41976017).
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Zhang, W., Zhang, J., Guan, C. et al. Impacts of Surface Exchange Coefficients on Simulations of Super Typhoon Megi (2010) Using a Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave Model. J. Ocean Univ. China 22, 587–600 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-023-5409-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-023-5409-8