Statistical distributions of singular vectors for tropical cyclones affecting Korea over a 10-year period

Abstract

To investigate the statistical sensitivity distributions of tropical cyclone (TC) forecasts over the Korean Peninsula, total energy (TE) singular vectors (SVs) were calculated and evaluated over a 10-year period. TESVs were calculated using the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model (MM5) and its tangent linear and adjoint models with a Lanczos algorithm over a 48-h period. Chosen cases were 21 TCs that affected the Korean Peninsula among 230 TCs that were generated in the western North Pacific from 2001 to 2010. Sensitive regions indicated by TESVs were mainly located near mid-latitude troughs and TC centers but varied depending on TC track and environmental conditions such as subtropical high and mid-latitude trough. The cases were classified into three groups by clustering TC tracks based on the finite mixture model. The two groups that passed through the western and southern sea of the Korean Peninsula had maximally sensitive regions in the mid-latitude trough and largely sensitive regions around the TC center, while the other group that passed straight through the eastern sea of the Korean Peninsula had maximally sensitive regions near the northeastern region of the TC center. Vertically, the former two clustered groups had the westerly tilted TESVs and potential vorticity structures under the mid-latitude troughs at the initial time, indicating the TCs were in a baroclinic environment. Conversely, the straight-moving TCs were not in a baroclinic environment. Based on the results in the present study, the TCs moving toward a fixed verification region over the Korean Peninsula have different sensitivity regions and structures according to their moving tracks and characteristic environmental conditions, which may provide guidance for targeted observations of TCs affecting the Korean Peninsula.