Explosive Cyclogenesis around the Korean Peninsula in May 2016 from a Potential Vorticity Perspective: Case Study and Numerical Simulations

Abstract

An explosive cyclone event that occurred near the Korean Peninsula in early May 2016 is simulated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to examine the developmental mechanisms of the explosive cyclone. After confirming that the WRF model reproduces the synoptic environments and main features of the event well, the favorable environmental conditions for the rapid development of the cyclone are analyzed, and the explosive development mechanisms of the cyclone are investigated with perturbation potential vorticity (PV) fields. The piecewise PV inversion method is used to identify the dynamically relevant meteorological fields associated with each perturbation PV anomaly. The rapid deepening of the surface cyclone was influenced by both adiabatic (an upper tropospheric PV anomaly) and diabatic (a low-level PV anomaly associated with condensational heating) processes, while the baroclinic processes in the lower troposphere had the smallest contribution. In the explosive phase of the cyclone life cycle, the diabatically generated PV anomalies associated with condensational heating induced by the ascending air in the warm conveyor belt are the most important factors for the initial intensity of the cyclone. The upper-level forcing is the most important factor in the evolution of the cyclone’s track, but it is of secondary importance for the initial strong deepening.

The Rapid Intensification of East Asian Cyclones Around the Korean Peninsula and Their Surface Impacts

“…This implies that the ETCs in this region can rapidly intensify through both upper-and lower-level processes. The previous studies indeed confirmed the importance of both dynamic and diabatic processes (Heo et al, 2015;Heo et al, 2019;Lee et al, 1991;Lee et al, 2009). However, most analyses are focused on case studies, and the relative importance of upper-and lower-level processes in the rapid intensification of ETCs is not generalized in this region, although it could vary from one case to another (e.g., Binder et al, 2016).…”

Analysis of the Most Intense Explosive Cyclone that Occurred Between 2010 and 2020 in the South Atlantic

“…In explosive cyclones, the troughs deepen the tropopause over the cold side due to their interaction with air masses. In this case, it is considered that there is a fold in the dynamic tropopause (Uccellini et al, 1985;Avila et al, 2016Avila et al, , 2021Nunes and Avila, 2017;Heo et al, 2019), which entails a maximum of potential vorticity (PV). For the Southern Hemisphere, cyclonic PV is negative, and according to Santurette and Georgiev (2005), 1,5 units of potential vorticity represents dynamic tropopause.…”

Meteorological aspects of heavy precipitation in relation to floods – An overview

“…Just like the medicanes, the explosive cyclones also belong to the intense Mediterranean cyclones, though not restricted to the Mediterranean area. They are generally larger in size and have larger lifetimes than the regular medicanes, and their characteristics are similar to tropical cyclones (Heo et al, 2019;Kouroutzoglou et al, 2011Kouroutzoglou et al, , 2014Michaelides et al, 2018). The development mechanisms are related to those of the medicanes described above.…”

“…This increased circulation in turn can result into higher diabatic heating by which a feedback develops. It is thought that the feedback mechanism is a main factor in the development of explosive cyclones (Heo et al, 2015;Heo et al, 2019;Kotal et al, 2012;Pang and Fu, 2017).…”