Typhoons and their upper ocean response over South China Sea using COAWST model

Thankaswamy，Anandh1; Xian，Tao2; Wang，Lian Ping1,2,3

2023

10.3389/feart.2023.1102957

Frontiers in Earth Science   Impact Factor & Quartile

2296-6463

The formation and intensification of typhoons is a complex process where energy and mass exchanges happen between the ocean and the atmosphere. In most typhoon numerical studies, a static ocean and a dynamic atmosphere are used to reduce the complexity of modeling. Using the COAWST model, we studied the air-sea interactions of Typhoon Mujigae in 2015, Typhoon Merbok in 2017, and Typhoon Hato in 2017 over the South China Sea. With different translation speeds, track shapes, and intensities between these cyclones, they act as an excellent case study to analyze the air-sea coupling in the models. The inclusion of coupling between the ocean and atmosphere is found to improve the typhoon track simulation significantly. The bias in the cyclone tracks is reduced by 10%–40% in the coupled model. The upper ocean response to the typhoon was also analyzed using the coupled model output. The coupled simulations show that the major energy extraction occurs to the right of the track, which is consistent with satellite observation and latent heat release analysis. The coupling process shows the air-sea interactions and exchanges in the upper ocean along with the energy released during the passage of typhoons. The heat budget analysis shows that the cooling of the upper ocean is mainly attributed to the advection associated with the typhoon forcing. This study shows that it is necessary to include ocean feedback while analyzing a typhoon, and the application of coupled models can improve our understanding as well as the forecasting capability of typhoons.

air-sea interactions coupled modelling latent heat South China Sea typhoons

SCI

English

Corresponding

National Natural Science Foundation of China["42075071","11988102"] ; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Turbulence Research and Applications[2019B21203001] ; Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Data-Driven Fluid Mechanics and Engineering Applications[2020B1212030001] ; Shenzhen Science and Technology Program["JCYJ20220530113005012","KQTD20180411143441009"]

Geology

Geosciences, Multidisciplinary

WOS:001022205200001

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA

2-s2.0-85164421107

Scopus

1.Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory,Guangzhou,China
2.Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Turbulence Research and Applications,Center for Complex Flows and Soft Matter Research and Department of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,Guangdong,China
3.Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Data-Driven Fluid Mechanics and Engineering Applications,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,China

Thankaswamy，Anandh,Xian，Tao,Wang，Lian Ping. Typhoons and their upper ocean response over South China Sea using COAWST model[J]. Frontiers in Earth Science,2023,11.

Thankaswamy，Anandh,Xian，Tao,&Wang，Lian Ping.(2023).Typhoons and their upper ocean response over South China Sea using COAWST model.Frontiers in Earth Science,11.

Thankaswamy，Anandh,et al."Typhoons and their upper ocean response over South China Sea using COAWST model".Frontiers in Earth Science 11(2023).