Tropical Cyclone Motion in Response to Land Surface Friction

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Abstract Numerical experiments are performed with the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model (MM5) to study the effects of surface-moisture flux and friction over land on the movement of tropical cyclones (TCs). On an f plane, the TCs are initially placed 150 km due east of a north–south-oriented coastline in an atmosphere at rest. It is found that a TC could drift toward land when the roughness length is 0.5 m over land, with an average drift speed of ∼1 m s−1. Friction, but not surface-moisture flux over land, is apparently essential for the movement toward land. The friction-induced asymmetry in the large-scale flow is the primary mechanism responsible for causing the TC drift. The mechanism responsible for the development of the large-scale asymmetric flow over the lower to midtroposphere (∼900–600 hPa) appears to be the creation of asymmetric vorticity by the divergence term in the vorticity equation. Horizontal advection then rotates the asymmetric vorticity to give a northeasterly flow in the TC periphery (∼500–1000 km from the TC center). The flow near the TC center has a more northerly component because of the stronger rotation by the tangential wind of the TC at inner radii. However, the TC does not move with the large-scale asymmetric flow. Potential vorticity budget calculations indicate that while the horizontal advection term is basically due to the effect of advection by the large-scale asymmetric flow, the diabatic heating and vertical advection terms have to be considered in determining the vortex landward drift, because of the strong asymmetry in vertical motion. Two mechanisms could induce the asymmetry in vertical motion and cause a deviation of the TC track from the horizontal asymmetric flow. First, the large-scale asymmetric flow in the upper troposphere differs from that in the lower troposphere, both in magnitude and direction, which results in a vertical shear that could force the asymmetry. A vertical tilt of the vortex axis is also found that is consistent with the direction of shear and also the asymmetry in rainfall and vertical motion. Second, asymmetric boundary layer convergence that results from the internal boundary layer could also force an asymmetry in vertical motion.