Impact of precipitation on ocean responses during a tropical cyclone
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Liu, Fu
Toumi, Ralf
Zhang, Han
Chen, Dake
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Precipitation plays a crucial role in modulating upper-ocean salinity and the formation of the barrier layer, which affects the development of tropical cyclones (TCs). This study performed idealized simulations to investigate the influence of precipitation on the upper ocean. Precipitation acts to suppress the wind-induced sea surface reduction and generates an asymmetric warming response with a rightward bias. There is substantial vertical change with a cooling anomaly in the subsurface, which is about 3 times larger than the surface warming. The mean tropical cyclone heat potential is locally increased, but the net effect across the cyclone footprint is small. The impact of precipitation on the ocean tends to saturate for extreme precipitation, suggesting a nonlinear feedback. A prevailing driver of the model behavior is that the freshwater flux from precipitation strengthens the stratification and increases current shear in the upper ocean, trapping more kinetic energy in the surface layer and subsequently weakening near-inertial waves in the deep ocean. This study highlights the competing roles of TC precipitation and wind. Because the TC category is weaker than category 3, the warming anomaly is caused by reduced vertical mixing, whereas for stronger storms, the advection process is most important.
Date Issued
2024-03-01
Date Acceptance
2024-01-11
Citation
Journal of Physical Oceanography, 2024, 54 (3), pp.895-909
ISSN
0022-3670
Publisher
American Meteorological Society
Start Page
895
End Page
909
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Physical Oceanography
Volume
54
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2024 American Meteorological Society. This is the author’s accepted manuscript made available under a CC-BY licence in accordance with Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy (www.imperial.ac.uk/oa-policy)
License URL
Identifier
https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/phoc/54/3/JPO-D-23-0138.1.xml
Subjects
Atmosphere-ocean interaction
BARRIER LAYER
EVOLUTION
HURRICANES
INNER-CORE
INTENSITY
Numerical analysis/modeling
Oceanography
Physical Sciences
Precipitation
Science & Technology
SENSITIVITY
SURFACE
Tropical cyclones
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2024-03-04