Sensitivity of WRF simulated typhoon track and intensity over the South China Sea to horizontal and vertical resolutions

To determine the grid resolutions of the WRF model in the typhoon simulation, some sensitivity analysis of horizontal and vertical resolutions in different conditions has been carried out. Different horizontal resolutions (5, 10, 20, 30 km), nesting grids (15 and 5 km), different vertical resolutions (35-layers, 28-layers, 20-layers) and different top maximum pressures (1 000, 2 000, 3 500, 5 000 Pa) had been used in the mesoscale numerical model WRF to simulate the Typhoon Kai-tak. The simulation results of typhoon track, wind speed and sea level pressure at different horizontal and vertical resolutions have been compared and analyzed. The horizontal and vertical resolutions of the model have limited effect on the simulation effect of the typhoon track. Different horizontal and vertical resolutions have obvious effects on typhoon strength (defined by wind speed) and intensity (defined by sea level pressure, SLP), especially for sea level pressure. The typhoon intensity simulated by the high-resolution model is closer to the real situation and the nesting grids can improve computational accuracy and efficiency. The simulation results affected by vertical resolution using 35-layers is better than the simulation results using 20-layers and 28-layers simulations. Through comparison and analysis, the horizontal and vertical resolutions of WRF model are finally determined as follows: the two-way nesting grid of 15 and 5 km is comprehensively determined, and the vertical layers is 35-layers, the top maximum pressure is 2 000 Pa.