The contribution of super typhoons to tropical cyclone activity in response to ENSO

Nam Young Kang; Dongjin Kim; James B. Elsner

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-41561-y

The contribution of super typhoons to tropical cyclone activity in response to ENSO

Nam Young Kang, Dongjin Kim, James B. Elsner

Department of Geography

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Western North Pacific tropical cyclone (TC) activity is known to have a significant response to El Niño and Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Among the TC intensity classifications, “super typhoon”, is widely used as a symbolic word for warning people about the potential for experiencing the most severe typhoon. This study quantifies the contribution of super typhoons to TC activity in response to ENSO, where the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) is used to indicate the internal variation of ENSO. It is found that the number and the genesis location of non-super typhoons are little influenced by ENSO, and the changes are mostly by the addition of super typhoons. Historical levels of El Niño and La Niña span from −2σ to +2σ of the SOI. Over this range of SOI values, the mean response is 5.6 super typhoons (7.1 for El Niño and 1.5 for La Niña) which nearly matches the mean response overall of 6 storms (24.6 for El Niño and 18.6 for La Niña). The spatial distribution of TC genesis locations for different ENSO conditions does not completely explain these results.

Original language	English
Article number	5046
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	9
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-41561-y
State	Published - 1 Dec 2019

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title = "The contribution of super typhoons to tropical cyclone activity in response to ENSO",

abstract = "Western North Pacific tropical cyclone (TC) activity is known to have a significant response to El Ni{\~n}o and Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Among the TC intensity classifications, “super typhoon”, is widely used as a symbolic word for warning people about the potential for experiencing the most severe typhoon. This study quantifies the contribution of super typhoons to TC activity in response to ENSO, where the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) is used to indicate the internal variation of ENSO. It is found that the number and the genesis location of non-super typhoons are little influenced by ENSO, and the changes are mostly by the addition of super typhoons. Historical levels of El Ni{\~n}o and La Ni{\~n}a span from −2σ to +2σ of the SOI. Over this range of SOI values, the mean response is 5.6 super typhoons (7.1 for El Ni{\~n}o and 1.5 for La Ni{\~n}a) which nearly matches the mean response overall of 6 storms (24.6 for El Ni{\~n}o and 18.6 for La Ni{\~n}a). The spatial distribution of TC genesis locations for different ENSO conditions does not completely explain these results.",

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The contribution of super typhoons to tropical cyclone activity in response to ENSO

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