Abstract
In this work, we investigate sea surface temperature (SST) cooling under binary typhoon conditions. We particularly focus on parallel- and cross-type typhoon paths during four typhoon events: Tembin and Bolaven in 2012, and Typhoon Chan-hom and Linfa in 2015. Wave-induced effects were simulated using a third-generation numeric model, WAVEWATCH III (WW3), and were subsequently included in SST simulations using the Stony Brook Parallel Ocean Model (sbPOM). Four wave-induced effects were analyzed: breaking waves, nonbreaking waves, radiation stress, and Stokes drift. Comparison of WW3-simulated significant wave height (SWH) data with measurements from the Jason-2 altimeter showed that the root mean square error (RMSE) was less than 0.6 m with a correlation (COR) of 0.9. When the four typhoon-wave-induced effects were included in sbPOM simulations, the simulated SSTs had an RMSE of 1 °C with a COR of 0.99 as compared to the Argos data. This was better than the RMSE and COR recovered between the measured and simulated SSTs, which were 1.4 °C and 0.96, respectively, when the four terms were not included. In particular, our results show that the effects of Stokes drift, as well as of nonbreaking waves, were an important factor in SST reduction during binary typhoons. The horizontal profile of the sbPOM-simulated SST for parallel-type typhoon paths (Typhoons Tembin and Bolaven) suggested that the observed finger pattern of SST cooling (up to 2 °C) was probably caused by drag from typhoon Tembin. SST was reduced by up to 4 °C for cross-type typhoon paths (Typhoons Chan-hom and Linfa). In general, mixing significantly increased when the four wave-induced effects were included. The vertical profile of SST indicated that disturbance depth increased (up to 100 m) for cross-type typhoon paths because the mixing intensity was greater for cross-type typhoons than for parallel-type typhoons.
Highlights
Typhoons occur frequently in the Western Pacific Ocean (WP) [1], affecting energy exchange at the air–sea boundary layer [2,3] and leading to several secondary hazards, such as extreme waves [4,5], landslides, and heavy rains [6]
Superimposition of the tracks of these four typhoons over the water depths obtained from the General Bathymetry Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) data showed that the paths of Tembin and Bolaven (19–30 August 2012) were almost parallel, while the path of Chan-hom intersected that of Linfa (7–12 July 2015; Figure 1)
The WW3-simulated significant wave height (SWH) were compared with the SWH measurements of the Jason-2 altimeter statistically using root mean squared error (RMSE) and correlations (CORs)
Summary
Typhoons occur frequently in the Western Pacific Ocean (WP) [1], affecting energy exchange at the air–sea boundary layer [2,3] and leading to several secondary hazards, such as extreme waves [4,5], landslides, and heavy rains [6]. At present, moored buoys [9] and satellites [10,11] provide real-time observations of oceanic conditions, winds and waves, during hurricanes and typhoons. Those devices are unable to generate time-series data with a fine spatial resolution; that is, the resolution of a scatterometer is typically 12.5 km [12], while that of an altimeter 4.0/). The data collected by these devices are not sufficient for long-term distribution analyses
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