Spatiotemporal Variability of Tropical Cyclone Genesis Density in the Northwest Pacific

Abstract

The small sample size of tropical cyclone (TC) genesis in the observations prevents us from fully characterizing its spatiotemporal variations. Here we take advantage of a large ensemble of 60-km-resolution atmospheric simulations to address this issue over the northwest Pacific (NWP) during 1951–2010. The variations in annual TC genesis density are explored separately on interannual and decadal time scales. The interannual variability is dominated by two leading modes. One is characterized by a dipole pattern, and its temporal evolution is closely linked to the developing ENSO. The other mode features high loadings in the central part of the basin, with out-of-phase changes near the equator and date line, and tends to occur during ENSO decay years. On decadal time scales, TC genesis density variability is primarily controlled by one mode, which exhibits an east–west dipole pattern with strong signals confined to south of 208N and is tied to the interdecadal Pacific oscillation–like sea surface temperature anomalies. Further, we investigate the seasonal evolution of the ENSO effect on TC genesis density. The results highlight the distinct impacts of the two types of ENSO (i.e., eastern Pacific vs central Pacific) on TC genesis density in the NWP during a specific season and show the strong seasonal dependency of the TC genesis response to ENSO. Although the results from the observations are not as prominent as those from the simulations because of the small sample size, the high consistency between them demonstrates the fidelity of the model in reproducing TC statistics and variability in the observations.