Singular Vector Structure and Evolution of a Recurving Tropical Cyclone

Abstract

Abstract In this study, the structure and evolution of total energy singular vectors (SVs) of Typhoon Usagi (2007) are evaluated using the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) and its tangent linear and adjoint models with a Lanczos algorithm. Horizontal structures of the initial SVs following the tropical cyclone (TC) evolution suggest that, relatively far from the region of TC recurvature, SVs near the TC center have larger magnitudes than those in the midlatitude trough. The SVs in the midlatitude trough region become dominant as the TC passes by the region of recurvature. Increasing magnitude of the SVs over the midlatitude trough regions is associated with the extratropical transition of the TC. While the SV sensitivities near the TC center are mostly associated with warming in the midtroposphere and inflow toward the TC along the edge of the subtropical high, the SV sensitivities in the midlatitude are located under the upper trough with upshear-tilted structures and associated with strong baroclinicity and frontogenesis in the lower troposphere. Given the results in this study, sensitive regions for adaptive observations of TCs may be different following the TC development stage. Far from the TC recurvature, sensitive regions near TC center may be important. Closer to the TC recurvature, effects of the midlatitude trough become dominant and the vertical structures of the SVs in the midlatitude are basically similar to those of extratropical cyclones.