Editorial Type:
Article
Article Type:
Research Article

A New Look at the Binary Interaction: Potential Vorticity Diagnosis of the Unusual Southward Movement of Tropical Storm Bopha (2000) and Its Interaction with Supertyphoon Saomai (2000)

Chun-Chieh Wu Department of Atmospheric Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

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Treng-Shi Huang Department of Atmospheric Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

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Wei-Peng Huang Department of Atmospheric Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

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Kun-Hsuan Chou Department of Atmospheric Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

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Print Publication:
01 Jul 2003
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0493(2003)131<1289:ANLATB>2.0.CO;2
Page(s):
1289–1300
Restricted access

Abstract

Tropical Storm Bopha (2000) showed a very unusual southward course parallel to the east coast of Taiwan, mainly steered by the circulation associated with Supertyphoon Saomai (2000) to Bopha's east. The binary interaction between the two typhoons is well demonstrated by the potential vorticity (PV) diagnosis. With the use of the piecewise PV inversion, this paper quantitatively evaluates how Bopha moved southward due to the binary interaction with Saomai. A newly proposed centroid-relative track, with the position weighting based on the steering flow induced by the PV anomaly associated with the other storm, is plotted to highlight such binary interaction processes. Note that the above analysis can be well used to understand the more complicated vortex merging and interacting processes between tropical cyclones either from observational data or numerical experiments. The results also shed some light on the prediction of nearby tropical cyclones.

Corresponding author address: Dr. Chun-Chieh Wu, Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences, National Taiwan University, 61, Ln. 144, Sec. 4, Keelung Rd., Taipei 106, Taiwan. Email: cwu@typhoon.as.ntu.edu.tw

Abstract

Tropical Storm Bopha (2000) showed a very unusual southward course parallel to the east coast of Taiwan, mainly steered by the circulation associated with Supertyphoon Saomai (2000) to Bopha's east. The binary interaction between the two typhoons is well demonstrated by the potential vorticity (PV) diagnosis. With the use of the piecewise PV inversion, this paper quantitatively evaluates how Bopha moved southward due to the binary interaction with Saomai. A newly proposed centroid-relative track, with the position weighting based on the steering flow induced by the PV anomaly associated with the other storm, is plotted to highlight such binary interaction processes. Note that the above analysis can be well used to understand the more complicated vortex merging and interacting processes between tropical cyclones either from observational data or numerical experiments. The results also shed some light on the prediction of nearby tropical cyclones.

Corresponding author address: Dr. Chun-Chieh Wu, Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences, National Taiwan University, 61, Ln. 144, Sec. 4, Keelung Rd., Taipei 106, Taiwan. Email: cwu@typhoon.as.ntu.edu.tw

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