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In this study, the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU–NCAR) Mesoscale Model (MM5) was used to simulate Supertyphoon Bilis (in 2000) and Typhoon Toraji (in 2001) in order to investigate the dynamics of track deflection caused by the Central Mountain Range (CMR) of Taiwan. The MM5 predicted the track of each storm reasonably well. Bilis was stronger and had a relatively faster forward motion, which helped make the track continuous as it crossed the CMR. The use of a “bogus” vortex in the initialization process helped produce a storm closer to the observed strength. Bilis is a classic example of a typhoon crossing Taiwan with a continuous track. For comparison, Typhoon Toraji, a typical typhoon having a discontinuous track, was also studied. Toraji was weaker and had a relatively slower forward speed, which prevented the original low center from crossing over the CMR and forced more air parcels to go around the northern tip of the CMR. As a result, it produced a vortex and a secondary low center on the lee. Potential vorticity banners on the north side of the CMR acted to organize the secondary low and the lee vortex. With time, the low-level circulation extended into the upper levels, completing the formation of the secondary center. Remnants of the initial center crossed over the CMR and were entrained into the secondary center. Nondimensional control parameters for track continuity and deflection from idealized studies are calculated for Bilis and Toraji. The results are consistent with the theory proposed in Lin et al. For tropical cyclones (TCs) approaching Taiwan from the southeast, the conceptual model proposed by Lin et al. for continuous and discontinuous tracks was applied. For continuous tracks over the CMR, the blocking effect on the outer circulation of the vortex is weak and the vorticity advection around the northern tip is strong due to an intense TC. Weak TCs tend to be totally blocked by the CMR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-resolution tropical cyclone model with explicit cloud microphysics has been used to investigate the dynamics and energetics of tropical cyclone rainbands. Analysis of the vorticity interactions that occur within the simulated rainbands demonstrates that couplets of cyclonic–anticyclonic mesovortices can be produced in outer bands. The primary source of this vorticity is the upward tilting of system-generated horizontal vorticity by diabatic heating gradients. The vertical heating gradient in the stratiform cloud also creates a potential vorticity (PV) dipole that accelerates the tangential flow and develops a midlevel jet. The strength of the jet is enhanced by the vortex pair that is oriented radially across the rainband. The Fourier decomposition of the absolute vorticity field shows two counterpropagating vortex Rossby waves associated with the rainband. The wave located on the inner side of the band transports energy toward the vortex center. The outer wave is made up of high wavenumbers and uses the vorticity gradients generated by the rainband. The results support the hypothesis that the heating profile in the stratiform regions of rainbands generates cyclonic PV across the freezing level, which develops a midlevel jet. This mechanism creates a vorticity gradient that enables the propagation of vortex Rossby waves that could allow the rainbands to interact with the mean flow and potentially influence the evolution of the storm by contributing to the symmetric component of vorticity and the development of secondary eyewalls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fourier-ray method involves ray tracing in a Fourier-transform domain. The ray solutions are then Fourier synthesized to produce a spatial solution. Here previous steady-state developments of the Fourier-ray method are extended to include a transient source of mountain waves. The method is illustrated with an initial value problem in which the background flow is started abruptly from rest and then maintained at steady velocity. The resulting wave transience is modeled in a simple way. All rays that radiate from the mountain, including the initial rays, are assigned the full amplitude of the longtime steady-state solution. Time dependence comes in through the changing position of the initial rays. This is sufficient to account for wave transience in a test case, as demonstrated by comparison with simulations from a mesoscale numerical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the variation of adjoint sensitivities as horizontal and vertical resolutions are changed is investigated. The fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU–NCAR) Mesoscale Model (MM5) and its adjoint are used with consistent physics to generate adjoint sensitivities over a 24-h period. The sensitivities are generated with respect to a response function defined as the lowest sigma level perturbation pressure over a region of northwestern Oregon. It is found that the scale, magnitude, and structure of sensitivity with respect to initial temperature varies significantly as grid spacing is decreased from 216 to 24 km. As found in other adjoint studies at relatively coarse resolution, low-level, upshear-tilted, subsynoptic-scale sensitivities were apparent, with the wavelike sensitivity pattern decreasing significantly in scale and spatial extent with increased horizontal resolution. It is also found that perturbation growth rates depend on horizontal resolution, with the adjoint sensitivities predicting larger changes in the response function with increased horizontal resolution. Relatively little change in sensitivity structure and growth rates occurred when the vertical resolution was varied from 10 to 50 vertical levels. It is shown that a majority of the predicted change in the response function comes from the very small proportion of the domain occupied by sensitive regions. Last, the accuracy of the tangent linear approximation is examined, and it is found that for perturbations made in sensitive regions, the tangent linear approximation degrades at finer grid spacing. The implications of these results are discussed for methodologies utilizing adjoint sensitivities, such as four-dimensional variational data assimilation and targeted observations strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR), TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI), and Visible and Infrared Scanner (VIRS) observations within the Precipitation Feature (PF) database have been analyzed to examine regional variability in rain area and maximum horizontal extent of rainfall features, and role of storm morphology on rainfall production (and thus modes where vertically integrated heating occurs). Particular attention is focused on the sampling geometry of the PR and the resulting impact on PF statistics across the global Tropics. It was found that 9% of rain features extend to the edge of the PR swath, with edge features contributing 42% of total rainfall. However, the area (maximum dimension) distribution of PR features is similar to the wider-swath TMI up until a truncation point of nearly 30 000 km2 (250 km), so a large portion of the feature size spectrum may be examined using the PR as with past ground-based studies. This study finds distinct differences in land and ocean storm morphology characteristics, which lead to important differences in rainfall modes regionally. A larger fraction of rainfall comes from more horizontally and vertically developed PFs over land than ocean due to the lack of shallow precipitation in both relative and absolute frequency of occurrence, with a trimodal distribution of rainfall contribution versus feature height observed over the ocean. Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) are found to be responsible for up to 90% of rainfall in selected land regions. Tropicswide, MCSs are responsible for more than 50% of rainfall in almost all regions with average annual rainfall exceeding 3 mm day-1. Characteristic variability in the contribution of rainfall by feature type is shown over land and ocean, which suggests new approaches for improved convective parameterizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new regional climate model (RCM) is presented in this paper and its performance is investigated through a pair of 60-day simulations. This new model is based on the dynamical formulation of the Cooperative Centre for Research in Mesometeorology (CCRM) mesoscale nonhydrostatic community model and on the complete subgrid-scale physical parameterization package of the second-generation Canadian Centre for Climate modeling and analysis General Circulation Model (CCCma GCMII). The main feature of the Canadian RCM (CRCM) comes from the very efficient semi-implicit and semi-Lagrangian (SISL) numerical scheme used for the integration of the fully elastic nonhydrostatic Euler equations. The efficiency of the SISL scheme allows the use of longer time steps (at least by a factor of 5) for the integration of this model (e.g., the 45-km resolution version of the model uses a 15-min time step). A complete description of the numerical formulation of the model is presented with a review of the principal characteristics of the physical package. A pair of two-month-long winter simulations is also analyzed to investigate the behavior of the model and to evaluate the potential of the SISL integration scheme in the context of regional climate simulation. The two integrations, produced with a 45-km resolution version of the model, developed realistic small-scale details from the low-resolution GCMII fields used to initialize and drive the RCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]