Mechanisms for a Spring Peak in East Asian Cyclone Activity

TL;DR

This study uncovers the atmospheric mechanisms behind the spring peak in East Asian cyclone activity, highlighting the roles of cyclonic wind shear, temperature gradients, and diabatic heating in cyclogenesis.

Contribution

It reveals the combined influence of wind shear, temperature gradients, and diabatic heating on the spring cyclone peak in East Asia, using composite analysis and modeling.

Findings

Cyclogenesis is enhanced by anomalously strengthened cyclonic wind shear.

Moisture flux from the south contributes to cyclone development.

Diabatic heating around East Asia strengthens the low-level jet.

Abstract

The frequency of extratropical cyclones in East Asia, including those traveling along the Kuroshio off the south coast of Japan, maximizes climatologically in spring in harmony with local enhancement of precipitation. The springtime cyclone activity is of great socioeconomic importance for East Asian countries. However, mechanisms for the spring peak in the East Asian cyclone activity have been poorly understood. This study aims to unravel the mechanisms, focusing particularly on favorable conditions for relevant cyclogenesis. Through a composite analysis based on atmospheric reanalysis data, we show that cyclogenesis enhanced around the East China Sea under anomalously strengthened cyclonic wind shear and temperature gradient, in addition to enhanced moisture flux from the south, is important for the spring peak in the cyclone activity in East Asia. In spring, climatologically strengthened cyclonic shear north of the low-level jet axis and associated frequent atmospheric frontogenesis in southern China and the East China Sea serve as favorable background conditions for low-level cyclogenesis. We also demonstrate that climatologically enhanced diabatic heating around East Asia is pivotal in strengthening of the low-level jet through a set of linear baroclinic model experiments. Our findings suggest the importance of the seasonal evolution of diabatic heating in East Asia for that of the climate system around East Asia from winter to spring, encompassing the spring peak in the cyclone activity and climatological precipitation.