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Cyclone phase space characteristics of the extratropical transitioning tropical cyclones over the western North Pacific

Acta Meteorologica Sinica volume 25, pages 78–90 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

The cyclone phase space (CPS) method has been utilized to evaluate the extratropical transition (ET) of tropical cyclones (TCs) in many recent publications. However, these studies mainly focused over the North Atlantic basin. In this paper, the CPS characteristics of all the cyclones over the western North Pacific are investigated and discussed, with three parameters calculated from the best-track data of the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center in Tokyo and the Japanese 25-yr reanalysis data. It is concluded that most TCs over the western North Pacific possess the non-frontal and warm-core structure, while a larger number of cyclones that have undergone ET hold the frontal and cold-core structure. The spatial pattern of the CPS parameters indicates that the areas of tropical and extratropical cyclone activities could be demarcated by 30°N. The composite and individual series of three parameters of the CPS indicate that the transformation of −V UT from positive to negative leads to the start of ET, and could be considered as a potential predictor in operationally forecasting an ET event.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Mesoscale Severe Weather of Nanjing University/Ministry of Education, and School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Jinjie Song, Juejing Han & Yuan Wang

Authors
  1. Jinjie Song
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  2. Juejing Han
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  3. Yuan Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuan Wang.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 40830958 and 40730948, the “973” Program of China under Grant No. 2009CB421502, and the National Rescarch Fund for Public Welfare under Grant Nos. GYHY200906011 and GYHY201006007.

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Song, J., Han, J. & Wang, Y. Cyclone phase space characteristics of the extratropical transitioning tropical cyclones over the western North Pacific. Acta Meteorol Sin 25, 78–90 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-011-0006-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-011-0006-y

Key words

  • tropical cyclone
  • extratropical transition
  • cyclone phase space