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Response of rapidly developing extratropical cyclones to sea surface temperature variations over the western Kuroshio-Oyashio confluence region


 The dynamical response of rapidly developing extratropical cyclones to sea surface temperature (SST) variations over the western Kuroshio-Oyashio confluence (WKOC) region was examined by using regional cloud-resolving simulations. This study specifically highlights an explosive cyclone that occurred in early February 2014 and includes a real SST experiment (CNTL run) and two sensitivity experiments with warm and cool SST anomalies over the WKOC region (warm and cool runs).
 The results derived from the CNTL run indicated that moisture supply from the ocean was enhanced when the dry air associated with the cold conveyor belt (CCB) overlapped with warm currents. Further, the evaporated moisture contributed substantially to latent heat release over the bent-back front with the aid of the CCB, leading to cyclone intensification and strengthening of the asymmetric structure around the cyclone’s center. Such successive processes were more active in the warm run than in the cool run. The dominance of the zonally asymmetric structure resulted in a difference in sea level pressure around the bent-back front between the two runs. The WKOC SST variations have the potential to affect strong wind distributions along the CCB through modification of the cyclone’s inner system.
 Additional experiments with two other cyclones showed that the cyclone response to the WKOC SST variations became evident when the CCB north of the cyclone’s center overlapped with that region, confirming that the dry nature of the CCB plays an important role in latent heat release by allowing for larger moisture supply from the ocean.


 雲解像領域モデルを用いて、急発達する温帯低気圧が西部黒潮-親潮混合水域(WKOC)の海面水温(SST)変動に対してどのような力学的応答をするのか調査した。 2014年2月上旬に発生した南岸低気圧(爆弾低気圧)に焦点を当て、実際に観測された海面水温(SST)を与えた数値実験(CNTL実験)とWKOC海域のSSTを改変したSST感度実験(高温・低温SST実験)を行った。
 CNTL実験では、寒冷コンベアベルト(CCB)に関連した乾燥空気が暖流上に重なってくると、暖流からの水蒸気供給が強化されることを確認した。 さらに、海面から蒸発した水蒸気がCCBによって後屈前線近傍の潜熱解放に 実質的に寄与しており、低気圧の発達ならびに低気圧中心の非対称構造の強化をもたらしていた。 そのような一連のプロセスは低温SST実験よりも高温SST実験で顕著であった。 低気圧中心核の東西非対称構造の顕在化は両感度実験間の後屈前線付近の海面更正気圧の差の増大に対応している。 WKOC海域のSST変動は低気圧の内部構造の変化を介してCCBに沿う強風分布に影響を与え得ることが見出された。
 他の2つの南岸低気圧についても同様なSST感度実験を行ったところ、WKOC海域のSST変動に対する低気圧応答は、低気圧中心の北側のCCBがWKOC海域に重なってくると顕在化しており、相対的に乾燥しているCCBが海面からの多量の水蒸気供給を促進させることで 潜熱放出に重要な役割を果たしている事を改めて確認した。  

*Please refer to the following manuscript.
*詳細は下記論文を参照してください。
Hirata, H., R. Kawamura, M. Kato, and T. Shinoda (2016): Response of rapidly developing extratropical cyclones to sea surface temperature variations over the western Kuroshio-Oyashio confluence region. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 121, 3843-3858, doi:10.1002/2015JD024391.

moisture_transport.jpg

Fig. 7: (a-d) Difference maps of surface turbulent latent heat flux (shading) and SLP (colored contours) between the warm run and the cool run (i.e., the former minus the latter) at the same times as those shown in Figure 3. The shading interval is 100 W m-2. The contour interval for the SLP difference is 2 hPa. The zero contour has been suppressed. The SLP distributions (black contours) of the warm run are also shown. The contour interval is 5 hPa. The values described above these panels represent the differences in central pressure of the cyclone between the two runs.