Sachie Kanada

Future Changes in Structures of Extremely Intense Tropical Cyclones Using a 2-km Mesh Nonhydrostatic Model

AbstractRecent studies have projected that global warming may lead to an increase in the number of extremely intense tropical cyclones. However, how global warming affects the structure of extremely intense tropical cyclones has not been thoroughly examined. This study defines extremely intense tropical cyclones as having a minimum central pressure below 900 hPa and investigates structural changes in the inner core and thereby changes in the intensity in the future climate. A 2-km mesh nonhydrostatic model (NHM2) is used to downscale the 20-km mesh atmospheric general circulation model projection forced with a control scenario and a scenario of twenty-first-century climate change. The eyewall region of extremely intense tropical cyclones simulated by NHM2 becomes relatively smaller and taller in the future climate. The intense near-surface inflow intrudes more inward toward the eye. The heights and the radii of the maximum wind speed significantly decrease and an intense updraft area extends from the lowe...

Future increase of supertyphoon intensity associated with climate change

Increases of tropical cyclone intensity with global warming have been demonstrated by historical data studies and theory. This raises great concern regarding future changes in typhoon intensity. The present study addressed the problem to what extent supertyphoons will become intense in the global warming climate of the late 21st century. Very high resolution downscale experiments using a cloud-resolving model without convective parameterizations were performed for the 30 most intense typhoons obtained from the 20 km mesh global simulation of a warmer climate. Twelve supertyphoons occurred in the downscale experiments, and the most intense supertyphoon attained a central pressure of 857 hPa and a wind speed of 88 m s−1. The maximum intensity of the supertyphoon was little affected by uncertainties that arise from experimental settings. This study indicates that the most intense future supertyphoon could attain wind speeds of 85–90 m s−1 and minimum central pressures of 860 hPa.

Performance of Long-Term Integrations of the Japan Meteorological Agency Nonhydrostatic Model Using the Spectral Boundary Coupling Method

The spectral boundary coupling (SBC) method, which is an approach used to couple a limited-area model with a large-scale model, was introduced into a nonhydrostatic model. To investigate whether the SBC method works well in a long-term integration of a high-resolution nonhydrostatic model, two numerical experiments were conducted with a model having a horizontal grid interval of 5 km. In one experiment, the SBC method was employed, while it was not in the other experiment. The time integration in both experiments was over a 40-day period. The nonhydrostatic model was nested into objectively analyzed fields, instead of the forecasts from an extended-area model. Predicted patterns of sea level pressure and precipitation were compared with objective analyses, and data provided by the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP), respectively. The predicted rainfall amounts and surface temperature over the Japanese islands were statistically evaluated, making use of the analyzed rainfall and surface data observed by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). All results examined in the present study exhibited better performances with use of the SBC method than those without the SBC method. It was found that the SBC method was highly useful in long-term simulations by a high-resolution nonhydrostatic model.

Numerical Study on the Extremely Rapid Intensification of an Intense Tropical Cyclone: Typhoon Ida (1958)

AbstractExtremely rapid intensification (ERI) of Typhoon Ida (1958) was examined with a 2-km-mesh nonhydrostatic model initiated at three different times. Ida was an extremely intense tropical cyclone with a minimum central pressure of 877 hPa. The maximum central pressure drop in 24 h exceeded 90 hPa. ERI was successfully simulated in two of the three experiments. A factor crucial to simulating ERI was a combination of shallow-to-moderate convection and tall, upright convective bursts (CBs). Under a strong environmental vertical wind shear (>10 m s−1), shallow-to-moderate convection on the downshear side that occurred around the intense near-surface inflow moistened the inner-core area. Meanwhile, dry subsiding flows on the upshear side helped intensification of midlevel (8 km) inertial stability. First, a midlevel warm core appeared below 10 km in the shallow-to-moderate convection areas, being followed by the development of the upper-level warm core associated with tall convection. When tall, upright, ...

A Multimodel Intercomparison of an Intense Typhoon in Future, Warmer Climates by Four 5-km-Mesh Models

AbstractIntense tropical cyclones (TCs) sometimes cause huge disasters, so it is imperative to explore the impacts of climate change on such TCs. Therefore, the authors conducted numerical simulations of the most destructive historical TC in Japanese history, Typhoon Vera (1959), in the current climate and a global warming climate. The authors used four nonhydrostatic models with a horizontal resolution of 5 km: the cloud-resolving storm simulator, the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) operational nonhydrostatic mesoscale model, and the Weather Research and Forecasting Model. Initial and boundary conditions for the control simulation were provided by the Japanese 55-year Reanalysis dataset. Changes between the periods of 1979–2003 and 2075–99 were estimated from climate runs of a 20-km-mesh atmospheric general circulation model, and these changes were added to the initial and boundary conditions of...

A Contrast in Precipitation Characteristics across the Baiu Front near Japan. Part I: TRMM PR Observation

AbstractContrasts in precipitation characteristics across the baiu front are examined with Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR) data near Japan during June–July (1998–2011). The vertical structure of atmospheric stratification differs between the tropics and midlatitudes. On an average, the baiu front is found around the latitude that roughly divides the midlatitude atmosphere from the tropical atmosphere. Precipitation characteristics are compared between the southern and northern sides of the reference latitude of the baiu front, which is detected with equivalent potential temperature at 1000 hPa of 345 K in terms of the boundary between the tropics and midlatitudes.The results show that there are obvious differences in precipitation characteristics between the southern and northern sides. In the south, convective rainfall ratios (CRRs) are 40%–60%, which are larger than those in the north (20%–40%). Greater rainfall intensity and taller/deeper precipitation are also obser...

Different Climatological Characteristics, Inner-Core Structures, and Intensification Processes of Simulated Intense Tropical Cyclones between 20-km Global and 5-km Regional Models

AbstractClimatological characteristics of simulated intense tropical cyclones (TCs) in the western North Pacific were explored with a 20-km-mesh atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM20) and a 5-km-mesh regional atmospheric nonhydrostatic model (ANHM5). From the AGCM20 climate runs, 34 intense TCs with a minimum central pressure (MCP) less than or equal to 900 hPa were sampled. Downscaling experiments were conducted with the ANHM5 for each intense TC simulated by the AGCM20. Only 23 developed into TCs with MCP ≤ 900 hPa. Most of the best-track TCs with an MCP ≤ 900 hPa underwent rapid intensification (RI) and attained maximum intensities south of 25°N. The AGCM20 simulated a similar number of intense TCs as the best-track datasets. However, the intense AGCM20 TCs tended to intensify longer and more gradually; only half of them underwent RI. The prolonged gradual intensification resulted in significant northward shifts of the location of maximum intensity compared with the location derived from two be...

Simulations of Forecast and Climate Modes Using Non-Hydrostatic Regional Models

Two applications with a cloud-resolving model are shown utilizing the Earth Simulator. The first application is a case in the winter cold-air outbreak situation observed over the Sea of Japan as a forecast mode. Detailed structures of the convergence zone (JPCZ) and formation of mechanism of transverse convective clouds (T-modes) are discussed. A wide domain in the horizontal (2000 × 2000) was used with a horizontal resolution of 1 km, and could reproduce detailed structures of the JPCZ as well as the cloud streets in the right positions. It is also found that the cloud streets of T-modes are parallel to the vertical wind shears and, thus, similar to the ordinary formation mechanism as longitudinal convective ones. The second application is changes in the Baiu frontal activity in the future warming climate from the present one as a climate mode. At the future warming climate, the Baiu front is more active over southern Japan, and the precipitation amounts increase there. On the other hand, the frequency of occurrence of heavy rainfall greater than 30 mm h-1 increases over the Japan Islands.