The impact of tropical storm paul (1999) on the motion and rainfall associated with tropical storm rachel (1999) near Taiwan

Chun Chieh Wu*, Kevin K W Cheung, Jan Huey Chen, Cheng Chuan Chang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

A heavy rainfall event associated with the passage of Tropical Storm Rachel (1999) over southern Taiwan was studied in which a conceptual model was proposed. In the model, Tropical Storm Paul (1999) plays an important role in impeding the movement of Rachel, thus becoming one of the key factors in enhancing the rainfall amount in southern Taiwan. To further quantify the above concept, a mesoscale numerical model is used to evaluate the influence of Paul on the simulated rainfall associated with Rachel near Taiwan. Sensitivity experiments are performed by removing the circulation of Paul, and/or the large-scale monsoon trough system, where Paul is imbedded. The potential vorticity diagnosis shows that the movement of Rachel is indeed affected by the presence of Paul. Nevertheless, a more detailed analysis shows that it is the presence of the entire monsoon trough that impedes the movement of Rachel and steers the storm toward southwestern Taiwan especially before its landfall. In all, these results generally support the conceptual model with regard to the heavy rainfall mechanism proposed in a previous study. Moreover, this study further points out that it is the circulation associated with both Paul and the entire monsoon trough that affects the movement of Rachel. In addition, the analyses based on the no-terrain simulation depict the relationships among the moisture-rich air from the South China Sea associated with Rachel, relatively dry air from South China, and the mechanism of forming a warm and dry region to the eastern side of the Taiwan terrain, which greatly influences the heavy rainfall distribution in the event.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1635-1650
Number of pages16
JournalMonthly Weather Review
Volume138
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2010

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© Copyright [2010] American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be €œfair use€ under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17USC §108, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the AMS€™s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a web site or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy, available on the AMS Web site located at (http://www.ametsoc.org/) or from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or [email protected].

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