Abstract
This study presented the spatial distribution patterns of tropical cyclones (TCs) in the South China Sea (SCS) and discussed the possible influences of average sea surface temperature (SST) and the size of warm ocean eddies on changes in the intensity of TCs passing over them. Between 1993 and 2013, the SCS has experienced 233 TCs, of which 134 have interacted with warm ocean eddies. The results of fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering showed that these TCs are mainly located in the northern portion of the SCS. After interacting with warm ocean eddies, TCs may intensify, remain at the same intensity, or weaken. For intensifying TCs, the enhancements range from 0 to 3 m/s only; however, this level of TC intensity enhancement is statistically significant at p<0.05. Further statistical analyses show that warm ocean eddies with a higher-than-average SST and a larger ratio between the size of the warm ocean eddies and the radius of the TC maximum wind may help intensify passing TCs.
Highlights
Tropical cyclones (TCs) are a common natural phenomenon that usually cause devastating disasters and, significantly affect human social and economic activities
We summarized the long-term average of the variations in maximum wind speed for all TC tracks passing over the South China Sea (SCS) from 1949 to 2013 within each cell, regardless of whether a warm ocean eddy was present within the cell when the TC passed over
It is reasonable to expect that the correlation coefficients would increase if we examined the variations in TC intensity in the SCS over a longer time interval
Summary
Tropical cyclones (TCs) are a common natural phenomenon that usually cause devastating disasters and, significantly affect human social and economic activities. After a TC makes landfall, it usually causes significant loss of life, damage to city infrastructure, and ecosystem destruction. When Katrina swept across the northern Gulf Coast of the United States, it caused about 1500 deaths and a total damage of about $81 billion [1]. The storm surge produced by Maemi claimed approximately 130 lives and caused $5 billion in property damage in Korea [2]. The TC Nargis was one of the most devastating natural disasters in the North Indian Ocean in recent years; bringing approximately 600 mm of total rainfall and a storm surge 3–4 m high, flooding the low-lying and densely populated Irrawaddy River delta. The deaths and missing persons toll from Nargis exceeded 130,000, and the economic losses were more than $10 billion [3,4]
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