Numerical study of the barotropic responses to a rapidly moving typhoon in the East China Sea

Abstract

Barotropic responses of the East China Sea to typhoon KOMPASU are investigated using a high-resolution, three-dimensional, primitive equation, and finite volume coastal ocean model. Even the fact that the typhoon KOMPASU only brushed across the brink of China mainland without landing, it still imposed great influence across China's east coastal area, where storm surges ranging from 35 to 70 cm were intrigued during this event and a large wake of water setdown due to the outward radial transport driven by the cyclonic wind stress was generated after the KOMPASU traveled across the Yellow Sea. Analysis of the numerical results reveals that the barotropic waves propagating along the coast after the typhoon's landing can be identified as Kelvin wave and the currents associated with the storm are geostrophic currents. A series of model runs are initiated to diagnose the effects of wind stress, atmospheric pressure, and storm track variation on the surge's spatial distribution in the East China Sea. The barotropic waves affected by the atmospheric disturbance due to the typhoon in deep Pacific Ocean travel far more rapidly, arriving at the coastal regions at least 60 h ahead of the typhoon. The wave amplitudes are merely 0.2–0.4 cm and damp gradually due to friction. The model experiments also confirm that the surge levels in nearshore regions are highly dominated by winds, whereas the water level variations in deeper areas are controlled by the atmospheric pressure forcing during typhoon events in the East China Sea.