Study on the genesis and development trend of tropical depressions under different large-scale backgrounds

Abstract

Based on self-organizing maps (SOM), large-scale backgrounds associated with tropical depression (TD) genesis over the western North Pacific (WNP) in 1949–2021 are classified into four circulation patterns, monsoon gyre (MG) pattern, monsoon confluence (MC) pattern, monsoon trough (MT) pattern and easterly wave (EW) pattern. TDs generated in the MC pattern has the southernmost average genesis location and the highest development probability, while TDs occurred in the EW pattern are averagely located northernmost and their probability of development is the lowest. TDs formed in the MG, MT and EW patterns are most active in August, whereas in the MC pattern, TD genesis number peaks in October. Advantageous conditions for TD genesis vary in different circulation patterns. The vigorous vorticity "embryo" provides stronger initial disturbances for MG pattern; The strong upper-level divergence and the weak deep-layer VWS provide sufficient dynamic conditions for the MC pattern; The MT pattern possess the highest SST, which supplies an ample supply of heat and moisture; The EW pattern has less beneficial conditions compared with other three patterns. The Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) method is applied to quantify the relative importance of individual factors to TD development trend. 500-hPa vorticity, 200-hPa divergence and SST are major dynamic and thermal affecting factors for TD development, the importance of which all ranked at top four in the four patterns; VWS plays an indispensable role in TD development for the MC and EW patterns; Comparely,850-hPa vorticity and vertically integrated water vapor flux are not as important as above environmental factors in deciding whether a TD develops.