Sea level rise, surface warming, and the weakened buffering ability of South China Sea to strong typhoons in recent decades
Abstract Each year, a number of typhoons in the western North Pacific pass through the Luzon Strait into South China Sea (SCS). Although the storms remain above a warm open sea, the majority of them weaken due to atmospheric and oceanic environments unfavorable for typhoon intensification in SCS, wh...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2017-08-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07572-3 |
| _version_ | 1818430725383258112 |
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| author | Jingru Sun Leo Oey F.-H. Xu Y.-C. Lin |
| author_facet | Jingru Sun Leo Oey F.-H. Xu Y.-C. Lin |
| author_sort | Jingru Sun |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Each year, a number of typhoons in the western North Pacific pass through the Luzon Strait into South China Sea (SCS). Although the storms remain above a warm open sea, the majority of them weaken due to atmospheric and oceanic environments unfavorable for typhoon intensification in SCS, which therefore serves as a natural buffer that shields the surrounding coasts from potentially more powerful storms. This study examines how this buffer has changed over inter-decadal and longer time scales. We show that the buffer weakens (i.e. greater potential for more powerful typhoons) in negative Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) years, as well as with sea-level-rise and surface warming, caused primarily by the deepening of the ocean’s 26 °C isotherm Z 26 . A new Intensity Change Index is proposed to describe the typhoon intensity change as a function of Z 26 and other environmental variables. In SCS, the new index accounts for as high as 75% of the total variance of typhoon intensity change. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T15:37:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-97e0bc2d88124043b61ebc2dcb332866 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T15:37:58Z |
| publishDate | 2017-08-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-97e0bc2d88124043b61ebc2dcb3328662022-12-21T22:55:41ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222017-08-01711910.1038/s41598-017-07572-3Sea level rise, surface warming, and the weakened buffering ability of South China Sea to strong typhoons in recent decadesJingru Sun0Leo Oey1F.-H. Xu2Y.-C. Lin3Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua UniversityGraduate Institute of Hydrological & Oceanic Sciences, National Central UniversityMinistry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua UniversityGraduate Institute of Hydrological & Oceanic Sciences, National Central UniversityAbstract Each year, a number of typhoons in the western North Pacific pass through the Luzon Strait into South China Sea (SCS). Although the storms remain above a warm open sea, the majority of them weaken due to atmospheric and oceanic environments unfavorable for typhoon intensification in SCS, which therefore serves as a natural buffer that shields the surrounding coasts from potentially more powerful storms. This study examines how this buffer has changed over inter-decadal and longer time scales. We show that the buffer weakens (i.e. greater potential for more powerful typhoons) in negative Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) years, as well as with sea-level-rise and surface warming, caused primarily by the deepening of the ocean’s 26 °C isotherm Z 26 . A new Intensity Change Index is proposed to describe the typhoon intensity change as a function of Z 26 and other environmental variables. In SCS, the new index accounts for as high as 75% of the total variance of typhoon intensity change.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07572-3 |
| spellingShingle | Jingru Sun Leo Oey F.-H. Xu Y.-C. Lin Sea level rise, surface warming, and the weakened buffering ability of South China Sea to strong typhoons in recent decades Scientific Reports |
| title | Sea level rise, surface warming, and the weakened buffering ability of South China Sea to strong typhoons in recent decades |
| title_full | Sea level rise, surface warming, and the weakened buffering ability of South China Sea to strong typhoons in recent decades |
| title_fullStr | Sea level rise, surface warming, and the weakened buffering ability of South China Sea to strong typhoons in recent decades |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sea level rise, surface warming, and the weakened buffering ability of South China Sea to strong typhoons in recent decades |
| title_short | Sea level rise, surface warming, and the weakened buffering ability of South China Sea to strong typhoons in recent decades |
| title_sort | sea level rise surface warming and the weakened buffering ability of south china sea to strong typhoons in recent decades |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07572-3 |
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