The NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data are used to investigate the role of cold air and moisture characteristics during the evolution of two cases of tropical cyclones (Nanmadol and Irma) which made landfall on China in wintertime. The results are shown as follows. (1) The East Asia trough steered the cold air into the tropical ocean in early winter. The tropical cyclones moved in opposite directions with a high moving out to sea and the enhancement of the pressure gradient at the periphery played a role in maintaining and strengthening the intensity of the storms. The intrusion of weak cold air into the low levels of the tropical cyclones strengthened them by improving the cyclonic disturbance when they were still over the warm sea surface. When the cold air was strong enough and intruded into the eyes, the warm cores were damaged and stuffed before dissipation. (2) The tropical cyclones were formed in a convergence zone of moisture flux and their development could enhance the disturbance of water vapor convergence, thus strengthening the moisture convergence zone. However, when they were outside the moisture zone, the storms could not gain sufficient water vapor and became weak. There were no belts of strong moisture transportation during the wintertime tropical cyclone processes.
Comparative analysis is carried out by using finite-domain power spectrum and lagged regression methods for the propagating characteristics and air-sea interaction processes of intraseasonal oscillations (ISOs) in the Asia to western Pacific (AWP) region during the boreal summer between the active and inactive tropical cyclone (TC) years from 1979 to 2004.The results show as follows.(1) There exist more significant eastward propagating characteristics of the ISO in the active TC years over the whole AWP region.The ISOs of convection propagate zonally with more eastward extension in the years with active tropical cyclone activities,during which the 20-60-day period is strengthened,western Pacific becomes an area with evident characteristics of the propagation that is closely related to TC activities.(2) The air-sea interaction processes are the same in both active and inactive TC years,and the energy exchanges between the air and the sea play a role in maintaining the northwestward propagation of ISOs.(3) The air-sea interaction is more intensive in the active TC years than in the inactive ones.It is particularly true for the latent heat release by condensation as the result of convection,which may be one of the reasons resulting in significant differences in characteristics of ISOs between the active and inactive TC years.
Using the daily average outgoing longwave radiation and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data in boreal summer(Mays to Octobers)from 1979 to 2007,the propagating characteristics of convection intraseasonal oscillations(ISOs)in the Asian-western Pacific(AWP)region and the relationship between tropical synoptic waves and ISOs are examined by means of finite-domain wavenumber-frequency energy spectrum analysis and lagged linear regression technique.The results are shown as follows.(1)The AWP ISOs propagate both eastward and westward,showing seasonality and regionality.The ISOs propagate eastward with a period of 30 to 60 days over equatorial regions in the whole AWP region,while the westward propagation occurs over 10 to 20°N western Pacific or in the late summers(August,September and October) with periods of 20 to 40 days.The ISOs eastward propagation mainly occurs in primary summers while the westward propagation enhances in late summers.(2)Deep ISO convections associate with westerly and cyclonic circulation anomalies that first form in the Indian Ocean,propagate eastward to the dateline in the Pacific and then turn northwestward.The ISOs convections show northwestward propagating characteristics in the western North Pacific.(3)The ISOs link with the tropical synoptic waves closely.Both convection signals,though with different spatio-temporal scale,enhance simutaneously in the northwestern Pacific,and the ISOs facilitate the forming of a cluster of tropical cyclones(TCs),while a cluster of TCs convection becomes one portion of the northwestward ISOs.
