Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan. Ser. II
Online ISSN : 2186-9057
Print ISSN : 0026-1165
ISSN-L : 0026-1165
Volume 98, Issue 1
Displaying 1-15 of 15 articles from this issue
Invited Review Articles
  • Kosuke Ito, Chun-Chieh Wu, Kelvin T. F. Chan, Ralf Toumi, Chris Davis
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 5-17
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 26, 2020
    Advance online publication: October 08, 2019
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    While the fundamental understanding of tropical cyclone (TC) movement is fairly mature, notable advancements are still being made. This paper summarizes new concepts and updates to the existing fundamental theories on TC movement obtained from simplified barotropic models, full-physics models, and data analysis, particularly since 2014. The scope includes recent works on the interaction between a TC and its environment, and the predictability related to TC movement. Although conventional concepts of steering flow, β-gyre, and diabatic heating remain important, a more complete understanding of TC movement governing mechanisms can provide an important basis for further track forecast improvements.

  • Yali Luo, Rudi Xia, Johnny C. L. Chan
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 19-42
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 26, 2020
    Advance online publication: October 16, 2019
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    The pre-summer rainy season (April to mid-June) over South China (SC) is characterized by a high intensity and frequent occurrence of heavy rainfall in the East Asian monsoon region. This review describes recent progress in the research related to this phenomenon. The mechanisms responsible for pre-summer rainfall consist of multiscale processes. Sea surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans are shown to have a great influence on the interannual variations of pre-summer rainfall over SC. Synoptic disturbances associated with regional extreme rainfall over SC are mainly related to cyclone- and trough-type anomalies. Surface sensible heating and mechanical forcing from the Tibetan Plateau can contribute to the formation and intensification of such anomalies. On a sub-daily scale, double rain belts often co-exist over SC. The northern rain belt is closely linked to dynamic lifting by a subtropical low pressure and its associated front/shear line, whereas westward extension of the western North Pacific high and intensification of the southwesterly monsoonal flows play important roles in providing high-equivalent potential temperature air to the west- and east-inland regions, respectively. The southern rain belt, with a smaller horizontal span, exists in the warm sector over either inland or coastal SC. The warm-sector rainfall over inland SC results from surface heating, local topographic lifting, and urban heat island effects interacting with the sea breeze. The warm-sector rainfall over coastal SC is closely associated with double low-level jets, land-sea-breeze fronts, and coastal mountains. A close relationship is found between convectively-generated quasi-stationary mesoscale outflow boundaries and continuous convective initiation in extreme rainfall events. Active warm-rain microphysical processes can play an important role in some extreme rainfall events, although the relative contributions of warm-rain, riming, and ice-phase microphysical processes remain unclear. Moreover, to improve rainfall predictions, efforts have been made in convection-permitting modeling studies.

Articles
  • Jaemyeong Mango Seo, Hyunho Lee, Sungju Moon, Jong-Jin Baik
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 43-60
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 17, 2020
    Advance online publication: October 20, 2019
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    This study examines how upslope geometry controls aerosol effects on orographic precipitation through two-dimensional idealized simulations of orographic precipitation from shallow warm convective clouds over a bell-shaped mountain with 1-km height. A total of nine cases are simulated by considering three different prescribed aerosol number concentrations and three different windward-widths of the mountain. For a detailed representation of drop size distributions, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model that includes a bin microphysics scheme is used with a horizontal grid size of 250 m and 401 terrain-following vertical levels. A higher aerosol number concentration leads to the production of more cloud droplets, inhibiting the growth of cloud droplets into raindrops in the cases with the symmetric mountain (the windward-side half-width a1 = 10 km). As a result, the total and maximum surface precipitation amounts decrease and the location of the maximum surface precipitation amount shifts downstream. The aerosol effects on orographic precipitation are more clearly seen in the cases with the narrow windward-width (a1 = 5 km) compared to the cases with the symmetric mountain and the wide windward-width (a1 = 20 km). In the cases with the narrow windward-width, the steep upslope generates strong convection with a short advection timescale (∼ 600 s), resulting in more precipitation being concentrated over a narrow area of the mountain downslope compared to the cases with the symmetric mountain and the wide windward-width. On the other hand, in the cases with the wide windward-width, the gentle upslope generates weak convection with a sufficiently long advection timescale (∼ 2400 s) so that a large portion of liquid drops precipitates out on the wide mountain upslope before reaching the peak.

  • Hironori Fudeyasu, Ryuji Yoshida, Munehiko Yamaguchi, Hisaki Eito, Chi ...
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 61-72
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 26, 2020
    Advance online publication: October 20, 2019
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    This study investigated the characteristics and environmental conditions of tropical cyclones (TCs) over the western North Pacific from 2009 to 2017 that dissipated before reaching tropical storm strength (TDs) under unfavorable environmental conditions; we compared TDs with TCs that reached tropical storm strength (TSs) in terms of modulations of relevant large-scale flow patterns. The flow patterns were categorized based on five factors: shear line, confluence region, monsoon gyre, easterly waves, and Rossby wave energy dispersion from a preexisting cyclone. Among 476 cases, 263 TDs were detected using best-track data and early stage Dvorak analysis. The TCs in the environments associated with the confluence region or Rossby wave energy dispersion (easterly waves) tended to reach tropical storm strength (remain weak) compared with the other factors. The average locations of TDs at the time of cyclogenesis in the confluence region, monsoon gyre, and easterly waves (Rossby wave energy dispersion) in the summer and autumn were farther to the west (east and north) than those of TSs that exhibited the same factors. The environments around TDs were less favorable for development than those around TSs, as there were significant differences in atmospheric (oceanic) environmental parameters between TDs and TSs in the factors of confluence region, easterly waves, and Rossby wave energy dispersion (shear line, monsoon gyre, and Rossby wave energy dispersion). The environmental conditions for reaching tropical storm strength over their developing stage, using five factors, can be summarized as follows: higher tropical cyclone heat potential in the shear line and monsoon gyre, weak vertical shear in the confluence region, wet conditions in the easterly waves, and higher sea surface temperatures and an intense preexisting cyclone in Rossby wave energy dispersion from a preexisting cyclone.

Articles: Special Edition on DYAMOND: The DYnamics of the Atmospheric general circulation Modeled On Non-hydrostatic Domains
  • Cathy Hohenegger, Luis Kornblueh, Daniel Klocke, Tobias Becker, Guido ...
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 73-91
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 26, 2020
    Advance online publication: November 10, 2019
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    Basic climate statistics, such as water and energy budgets, location and width of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), trimodal tropical cloud distribution, position of the polar jet, and land sea contrast, remain either biased in coarse-resolution general circulation models or are tuned. Here, we examine the horizontal resolution dependency of such statistics in a set of global convection-permitting simulations integrated with the ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic (ICON) model, explicit convection, and grid spacings ranging from 80 km down to 2.5 km. The impact of resolution is quantified by comparing the resolution-induced differences to the spread obtained in an ensemble of eight distinct global storm-resolving models.

    Using this metric, we find that, at least by 5 km, the resolution-induced differences become smaller than the spread in 26 out of the 27 investigated statistics. Even for nine (18) of these statistics, a grid spacing of 80 (10) km does not lead to significant differences. Resolution down to 5 km matters especially for net shortwave radiation, which systematically increases with the resolution because of reductions in the low cloud amount over the subtropical oceans. Further resolution dependencies can be found in the land-to-ocean precipitation ratio, in the latitudinal position and width of the Pacific ITCZ, and in the longitudinal position of the Atlantic ITCZ. In addition, in the tropics, the deep convective cloud population systematically increases at the expense of the shallow one, whereas the partition of congestus clouds remains fairly constant. Finally, refining the grid spacing systematically moves the simulations closer to observations, but climate statistics exhibiting weaker resolution dependencies are not necessarily associated with smaller biases.

Articles
  • Yu-Feng Lin, Chun-Chieh Wu, Tzu-Hsiung Yen, Yi-Hsuan Huang, Guo-Yuan L ...
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 93-113
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 17, 2020
    Advance online publication: November 10, 2019
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    Using special data from the field program of “Impact of Typhoons on the Ocean in the Pacific” (2010) and an ensemble Kalman filter–based vortex initialization method, this study explores the impact of Taiwan terrain on the uncertainty in forecasting track, intensity, and rainfall of Typhoon Fanapi (2010) based on ensemble simulations. The results show that the presence of Taiwan topography leads to rapid growths of the simulation uncertainty in track and intensity during the landfall period, particularly at the earlier landfall period. The fast moving ensemble members show an earlier southward track deflection as well as weakening of intensity, resulting in a sudden increase of standard deviation in track and intensity. During the period of offshore departure from Taiwan, our analysis suggests that the latitudinal location of the long-lasting and elongated rainband to the south of the tropical cyclone (TC) center has strong dependence on the latitude of the TC center. In addition, the rainfall uncertainty in southern Taiwan is dominated by the uncertainty of the simulated TC rainband, and the latitude of the TC track can be regarded as a good predictor of the rainband's location at departure time. It is also found that the rainband develops farther to the south as the topography is elevated. Considering the fact that the rainband impinging the high mountains in the southern Central Mountain Range generates the greatest accumulated rainfall, positions where the rainband associated circulation and its interaction with topography appear to offer an explanation on the uncertainty of the simulated rainfall.

  • Taku Umezawa, Stephen J. Andrews, Takuya Saito
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 115-127
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 26, 2020
    Advance online publication: November 10, 2019
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    Although methane plays an important role in climate change and atmospheric chemistry, its global budget remains quantitatively uncertain mainly because of a wide variety of source types. The stable carbon isotope ratio of atmospheric methane (δ13C-CH4) is useful for separating contributions of different source categories, but owing to the complex and laborious analysis, limited measurement data exist. We present a new system for δ13C-CH4 measurement, optimized for the automated analysis of air samples. Although the system is designed, in principle, similarly to those in previous studies, we successfully set up the system with no use of cryogens (e.g., liquid nitrogen) and attained reproducibility sufficient to analyze atmospheric variations (∼0.1 ‰). We performed automated continuous measurements of ambient air outside our laboratory at about hourly intervals for 2 months, which characterized imprint of local methane sources well. Future measurement operation for flask air samples from existing atmospheric monitoring programs will provide a large number of atmospheric δ13C-CH4 data.

  • Jyong-En Miao, Ming-Jen Yang
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 129-152
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 17, 2020
    Advance online publication: November 16, 2019
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    On 14 June 2015, a severe afternoon thunderstorm event developed within the Taipei Basin, which produced intense rainfall (with a rainfall rate of 131 mm h−1) and urban-scale flooding. Cloud-resolving simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model were performed to capture reasonably well the onset of the sea breeze and the development and evolution of this afternoon thunderstorm system. The WRF model had four nested grids (with the finest grid size of 0.5 km) in the horizontal direction and 55 layers in the vertical direction to explicitly resolve the deep convection over complex terrain.

    It was found that convection was initiated both by the sea breeze at foothill and by the upslope wind at the mountain peak. Convective available potential energy (CAPE) was increased from 800 to 3200 J kg−1 with abundant moisture transport by the sea breeze from 08 to 12 LST, fueling large thermodynamic instability for the development of the afternoon thunderstorm. Strong convergence between the sea breeze and cold-air outflow triggered further development of intense convection, resulting in heavy rainfall over Taipei City.

    Microphysics sensitivity experiments showed that evaporative cooling played a major role in the propagation of cold-air outflow and the production of heavy rainfall within the basin plain (terrain height < 100 m), whereas melting cooling played a minor role. The terrain-removal experiment indicated that the local topography of Mount Datun at the coastal region may produce the channel effect through the Danshui River Valley, intensify sea-breeze circulation, and transport more moisture. This terrain-induced modification of sea breeze circulation made its dynamic and thermodynamic characteristics more favorable for convection development, resulting in a stronger afternoon thunderstorm system with heavy rainfall within Taipei City.

Articles: Special Edition on Extreme Rainfall Events in 2017 and 2018
  • Kyung-Ja Ha, Ji-Hye Yeo, Ye-Won Seo, Eui-Seok Chung, Ja-Yeon Moon, Xue ...
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 153-167
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 26, 2020
    Advance online publication: November 16, 2019
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    In 2018, heatwaves (HWs), defined as a period of abnormally hot weather with a daily maximum temperature (T_Max) exceeding its 95th percentile threshold for at least 3 consecutive days, were prevalent from June through August, and temperature records exceeded the reference values in many countries over East Asia (EA), including China (CH), Japan (JP), and the Korean Peninsula (KP). Particularly, extreme HWs from July through August lasted for the longest duration of 21.3 days, with T_Max reaching 36.9°C. The highest T_Max recorded since 1907 was 41°C in Hongcheon, located east of Seoul in the KP. Here, we examined the factors that influenced the 2018 HW, and how these relate to the 1994 HW, which was the second longest HW recorded in the KP. The results showed that abnormally strong and northwestward extended anticyclone features observed in July 2018 lasted as a persistent North Pacific anticyclone anomaly until August 2018, centered at the northern KP. These anticyclone features subsequently formed a modon-like blocking, with a cyclonic anomaly in the East China Sea. In August 1994, the North Pacific High (NPH) extended to eastern EA, which broke down the meridional dipole structure and HWs did not persist. The NPH, which persisted until August 2018, was accompanied by a sinking motion, suppression of precipitation, anomalous maximum temperature, weakening of the westerly jet stream, and increased insolation due to clear sky. We found that the prolonged and northwestward-shifted NPH, including the KP, drove the extraordinarily hot 2018 summer in Korea. In addition, low precipitation and massive evapotranspiration with persistent insolation in July 2018 influenced the dry condition at the surface. We suggest that the predictions for the location and duration of the NPH associated with the HWs are required to reduce heat-related mortality and the impact on agriculture because of excessive evapotranspiration.

Articles
  • Kazuto Takemura, Hitoshi Mukougawa
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 169-187
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 26, 2020
    Advance online publication: December 01, 2019
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    This study investigates a new possible process linking the quasi-stationary Rossby wave propagation (SWP) over Eurasia along the Asian jet and the Pacific-Japan (PJ) pattern through the Rossby wave breaking (RWB) near the jet exit region during boreal summer using a reanalysis dataset. To assess the statistical significance of the process, we conduct a lag composite analysis of the past 44 RWB events east of Japan. The result of the lag composite analysis shows that the SWP along the Asian jet induces the RWB accompanied by an amplified anomalous anticyclone east of Japan. The associated “inverse-S” shaped overturning of the upper-level potential vorticity (PV) distribution causes the southwestward intrusion of the high PV toward the subtropical western North Pacific (WNP). The Q-vector diagnosis and vorticity budget analysis indicate that the upper-level positive vorticity advection associated with the RWB is an important factor dynamically inducing ascent and reinforcing convection over the subtropical WNP, which in turn excites the subsequent PJ pattern. Classification of the cases by RWB strength indicates that the stronger RWB is significantly related to the stronger preceding SWP and subsequent enhanced PJ pattern, and vice versa. A partial correlation analysis of all the cases quantitatively shows the greater contribution of the upper-level positive vorticity advection over the subtropical WNP to the enhanced convection in this area and the formation of the PJ pattern, compared to that of the anomalous warm sea surface temperature condition. These results show that the SWP along the Asian jet can excite the PJ pattern, through the RWB east of Japan and the consequent intrusion of the high PV toward the subtropical WNP.

    Editor's pick

    Takemura and Mukougawa (2020): The above paper was chosen as a JMSJ Editor's Highlight. (4 Jan. 2020)
    Description of this paper

  • Tomohiko Tomita, Taiga Shirai, Tsuyoshi Yamaura
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 189-211
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 26, 2020
    Advance online publication: November 30, 2019
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    La Niña (LN) events are generally longer than El Niño (EN) events. Using objective analysis data, we herein investigated the effects of the Australian winter monsoon (AWM) on prolonging LN events. Conventionally, EN events end through the eastward shift of the anomalous Walker circulation in the equatorial Pacific during March-August. In contrast, the stronger-than-usual AWM induced by LN anchors the upflow branch of anomalous Walker circulation in the Indonesian maritime continent (IMC). The strength of the AWM is controlled by the surface temperature difference between the IMC and the northern Australian continent (NAC). LN has a large impact on the decrease in surface temperature in the NAC through a decrease of the downward surface shortwave radiation flux and the increase in surface soil moisture in the NAC. In LN events, the strength of the AWM and the anomalous Walker circulation reinforce each other through the common convective ascending in and around the IMC, which may be termed LN–AWM feedback, prolonging the duration of LN events. During EN events, such feedback is weak so that EN events generally end in the period of March–August.

  • Zhenghui Li, Yali Luo, Yu Du, Johnny C. L. Chan
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 213-233
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 26, 2020
    Advance online publication: November 30, 2019
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    In this study, the climatological characteristics of pre-summer (April to June) rainfall over South China (SC) and the associated synoptic conditions are examined using 1980–2017 hourly rainfall observations and reanalysis data. The amount, frequency, and intensity of rainfall show pronounced regional variations and substantial changes between pre- and post-monsoon-onset periods. Owing to the more favorable thermodynamic conditions after monsoon onset over the South China Sea (SCS), rainfall intensifies generally over SC irrespective of the rainfall-event durations. Increased rainfall amounts in longer-duration (> 6 h) events were found over a designated west-inland region (west of 111°E), which are partially attributed to enhanced dynamic instability. In addition, rainfall events occur more frequently over the west-inland region, as well as coastal regions to the west of 118°E, but less over a designated east-inland region. Inland-region rainfall is closely linked to dynamic lifting driven by subtropical synoptic systems (low pressure and an associated front or shearline). The westward extension of the western North Pacific high and the eastward extension/movement of the front or shearline, interacting with the intra-period intensification of the southwesterly monsoonal flows, play important roles in providing high-θe (equivalent potential temperature) air to the west- and east-inland regions, respectively. Warm-sector coastal rainfall is closely related to the deceleration of the southerly boundary layer (BL) air flow over the northern SCS and associated convergence of BL high-θe air near the coast. Meanwhile, the southwesterly synoptic-system-related low-level jet in the lower-to-middle troposphere to the south of the inland cold front can contribute to the coastal rainfall occurrence by providing divergence above the BL convergence near the coast. The BL flow often simultaneously strengthens with the lower-troposphere horizontal winds, suggesting a close association between the BL flow and the synoptic systems. The quantitative statistics provided in this study complement previous case studies or qualitative results and, thus, advance our understanding about pre-summer rainfall over SC.

Articles: Special Edition on Extreme Rainfall Events in 2017 and 2018
  • Chie Yokoyama, Hiroki Tsuji, Yukari N. Takayabu
    2020 Volume 98 Issue 1 Pages 235-255
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: March 26, 2020
    Advance online publication: November 30, 2019
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    In this study, we examined the characteristics of a rainfall system that brought heavy rainfall to a broad portion of western Japan on July 5–8, 2018, and the role played by an upper-tropospheric trough which stayed at the rear of the extensive rainfall area during the event. The Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar onboard the core satellite of the Global Precipitation Measurement revealed the significant contribution of rainfall with its top below 10 km, the broad spatial extent covered by stratiform rainfall, and the presence of convective rainfall embedded in the large stratiform rainfall area. These features are characteristic of well-organized rainfall systems. Based on the analysis of meteorological data, large-scale environmental conditions related to the event were found to be relatively stable and very humid throughout most of the troposphere compared with the climatology. This large-scale environment, which is consistent with previous statistical results for extreme rainfall events, was present across an extensive area of Japan.

    We found that the trough played an important role in the maintenance of an environment favorable for rainfall organization. Dynamical ascent associated with the trough acted to produce vertical moisture flux convergence in the mid-troposphere and upper troposphere and moistened most of the troposphere in conjunction with horizontal moisture flux convergence. Humid conditions in the mid- to lower troposphere enhanced the development of deep convection when the lower troposphere was convectively unstable. Once deep convection was promoted in this way, convection itself could moisten the mid- to upper troposphere further through diabatic ascent, thereby loading the free troposphere with moisture. This synergy between the dynamical effect and the diabatic effect enhanced the conditions that allowed for a well-organized rainfall system that produced very heavy rainfall over a large portion of Japan.

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