This paper tests the impacts of cloud-induced mass forcing on the moist potential vorticity (MPV) anomaly associated with torrential rains caused by Typhoon No.9914 (Dan) by using fine model simulation data outputted by the Fifth-Generation NCAR / Penn State Mesoscale Model (MM5). The diagnostic results show that the positive MPV anomaly region,which is obtained by integrating the MPV from 600 hPa to 300 hPa in the vertical,roughly coincides with the precipitation at their synchronous stages either in position or in the distribution pattern,and the maximum positive MPV area of Dan is located mainly between 600 hPa and 300 hPa,which is much higher than torrential rain cases. Further analyses also showed that the value of positive MPV anomaly increased or decreased with the development of Dan,and the positive MPV anomaly may also be served as a tracer to indicate the evolution of tropical cyclone intensity.
In this study,we derived atmospheric profiles of temperature,moisture,and ozone,along with surface emissivity,skin temperature,and surface pressure,from infrared-sounder radiances under clear sky (cloudless) condition.Clouds were detected objectively using the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder under a relatively low spatial resolution and cloud-mask information from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer under a high horizontal resolution;this detection was conducted using space matching.Newton’s nonlinear physical iterative solution technique is applied to the radiative transfer equation (RTE) to retrieve temperature profiles,relative humidity profiles,and surface variables simultaneously.This technique is carried out by using the results of an eigenvector regression retrieval as the background profile and using corresponding iterative forms for the weighting functions of temperature and water-vapor mixing ratio.The iterative forms are obtained by applying the variational principle to the RTE.We also compared the retrievals obtained with different types of observations.The results show that the retrieved atmospheric sounding profile has great superiority over other observations by accuracy and resolution.Retrieved profiles can be used to improve the initial conditions of numerical models and used in areas where conventional observations are sparse,such as plateaus,deserts,and seas.
An analysis is made to investigate the structure features of the extensive heavy rainfall left by typhoon Matsa, after its landfall in China's Mainland in August 2005, based on a range of observational results, including surface intensive observation data, TBB data from China's FY-2 satellite, and NCEP 1°×1° reanalysis data. The study tries to explore the interaction between atmospheric waves, 3-D atmospheric structures, and typhoon rainbands. Observational facts, diagnostic analysis, and atmospheric wave theory are used to look into the formation mechanism of distant typhoon rainbands. Results show that (1) Matsa rainbands have the features of noticeable wave train distribution and long distance propaga-tion; (2) the typhoon rainbands extend as far as 2000 km northwardly from the typhoon center, with a wavelength of 500―1000 km and a wave period of 12―24 h; (3) the wave structure of Matsa rainbands is closely associated with the corresponding wave variation of the ambient 3-D atmospheric structures, including disturbance vorticity, divergence field, vertical motion field, water vapor flux divergence field, etc. (4) both observational facts and theoretical analysis show that the northward extending typhoon rainbands are associated with the mixed effects of atmospheric inertia wave and internal gravity wave; (5) only under proper atmospheric stratification and vertical wavenumber of gravity wave, can a ty-phoon stimulate such a wave being able to reach such a distance, and result in extending wavy rain-bands.
A tropical cyclone is a kind of violent weather system that takes place in warmer tropical oceans and spins rapidly around its center and at the same time moves along surrounding flows. It is generally recognized that the large-scale circulation plays a major role in determining the movement of tropical cyclones and the effects of steering flows are the highest priority in the forecasting of tropical cyclone motion and track. This article adopts a new method to derive the steering flow and select a typical swerving track case (typhoon Dan, coded 9914) to illustrate the validity of the method. The general approach is to modify the vorticity, geostropical vorticity and divergence, investigate the change in the non-divergent stream function, geoptential and velocity potential, respectively, and compute a modified velocity field to determine the steering flow. Unlike other methods in regular use such as weighted average of wind fields or geopoential height, this method has the least adverse effects on the environmental field and could derive a proper steering flow which fits well with storm motion. Combined with other internal and external forcings, this method could have wide application in the prediction of tropical cyclone track.
