Abstract
We used the observations from Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) onboard Aqua over the northwest Pacific Ocean from 2006–2015 to study the relationships between (i) tropical cyclone (TC) temperature structure and intensity and (ii) cloud macro-/micro-physical properties and TC intensity. TC intensity had a positive correlation with warm-core strength (correlation coefficient of 0.8556). The warm-core strength increased gradually from 1 K for tropical depression (TD) to >15 K for super typhoon (Super TY). The vertical areas affected by the warm core expanded as TC intensity increased. The positive correlation between TC intensity and warm-core height was slightly weaker. The warm-core heights for TD, tropical storm (TS), and severe tropical storm (STS) were concentrated between 300 and 500 hPa, while those for typhoon (TY), severe typhoon (STY), and Super TY varied from 200 to 350 hPa. Analyses of the cloud macro-/micro-physical properties showed that the top of TC cloud systems mainly consisted of ice clouds. For TCs of all intensities, areas near the TC center showed lower cloud-top pressures and lower cloud-top temperatures, more cloud fractions, and larger ice-cloud effective diameters. With the increase in TC intensity, the levels of ice clouds around the TC center became higher and the spiral cloud-rain bands became larger. When a TC developed into a TY, STY, or Super TY, the convection in the clouds was stronger, releasing more heat, thus forming a much warmer warm core.
Highlights
A tropical cyclone (TC) is a strong cyclonic vortex with a warm-core structure formed on the tropical ocean surface [1]
There was a positive correlation between TC intensity and warm core strength
Correlation coefficients varied by intensity class, with the highest value (0.496) for TY
Summary
A tropical cyclone (TC) is a strong cyclonic vortex with a warm-core structure formed on the tropical ocean surface [1]. Since the 1970s, some achievements have been made in studying TCs; especially with the development of satellite technology, people have a new understanding of the origin, development process, and internal structure of TCs [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Atmosphere 2020, 11, 1181; doi:10.3390/atmos11111181 www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphere (especially the application of satellite and remote sensing technology) has allowed meteorologists to develop a more in-depth understanding of variations in the structure and intensity of TCs. For example, Stern and Zhang [17] used dropsondes deployed by the DC-8 as part of the Genesis and Rapid.
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