A Study of the Extratropical Transformation of Typhoon Winnie (1997)

【Abstract】 The complicated evolutive process of how a tropical cyclone transforms into an extratropical cyclone is still an unresolved issue to date, especially one which arises in a weakly baroclinic environment. Typhoon Winnie (1997) is studied during its extratropical transformation stage of extratropical transition (ET) with observational data and numerical simulations. Results show that Winnie experienced its extratropical transformation to the south of the subtropical high without intrusion of the mid-latitude baroclinic zone. This is significantly different from previous studies. Analyses reveal that the cold air, which appeared in the north edge of Winnie circulation, resulted from the precipitation drag and cooling effect of latent heat absorption associated with the intense precipitation there. The cooling only happened below 3 km and the greatest cooling was below 1 km. With the cold air and its advection by the circulation of Winnie, a front was formed in the lower troposphere. The front above is related not only to the cooling in the lower level but also to the warming effect of latent heat release in the middle-upper levels. The different temperature variation in the vertical caused the temperature gradient over Winnie and resulted in the baxoclinicity.更多还原