Effects of Landfall Location and Approach Angle of an Idealized Tropical Cyclone over a Long Mountain Range

• Main Authors: Liping eLiu, Yuh-Lang eLin, Shu-Hua eChen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-02-01
• Series: Frontiers in Earth Science
• Subjects: Orographic effects; tropical cyclones; Idealized simulations; Approach angle; TC track deflection; landfalling location
• Online Access: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/feart.2016.00014/full

Effects of landfall location and approach angle on track deflection associated with a tropical cyclone (TC) passing over an idealized and Central Appalachian Mountain is investigated by a series of idealized numerical experiments. When the TC landfalls on the central portion of the mountain range, it is deflected to the south upstream, passes over the mountain anticyclonically, and then moves westward downstream. The TC motion is steered by the positive vorticity tendency (VT) which is dominated by horizontal vorticity advection upstream and downstream, but with additional influence from the stretching and residual terms, which are mainly associated with diabatic heating and frictional effects. The track deflection mechanism upstream and downstream is similar to the dry flow in previous study, but is very different in the vicinity of the mountain. When the TC landfalls near the northern (southern) tip, it experiences less (more) southward deflection due to stronger (weaker) vorticity advection around the tip. When the TC approaches the mountain range from the southeast and landfalls on the northern tip, center, or southern tip, the track deflections are similar to those embedded in an easterly flow but with weaker orographic blocking. These results are similar to the cases simulated in the dry flow in previous study, except that there is no track discontinuity due to the weaker orographic blocking associated with strong TC convection. When a TC moves along the north-south mountain range from the south, it tends to deflect toward the mountain and then crosses over to the other side at later time. In these cases, the positive VT is influenced by all horizontal vorticity advection, vorticity stretching (diabatic heating) and residual (friction) terms due to longer and stronger interaction with the mountain range. The vorticity stretching is mainly caused by diabatic heating in the moist flow, instead of by lee slope vorticity stretching in the previous study for dry flow.