Impacts of central Pacific and eastern Pacific El Ninos on tropical cyclone tracks over the western North Pacific

This study examines the different impacts of two types of El Ninos, the eastern Pacific El Nino (EP-EN) and the central Pacific El Nino (CP-EN), on tropical cyclone (TC) tracks over the western North Pacific (WNP) based on observational data. Whereas TC tracks between CP-EN and EP-EN show a small difference in boreal summer (JJA), they do exhibit a great difference in boreal autumn (SON), that is, TCs recurve northward at a further westward location near the coastline of East Asia during CP-EN. As a consequence, more TCs make landfall to Taiwan and South China during CP-EN. A further observational analysis indicates that the westward shift of the subtropical high and associated steering flow during CP-EN is a key factor that causes the difference in the TC tracks in autumn. Numerical experiments further suggest that the difference of local SST in the WNP between CP-EN and EP-EN accounts for the distinctive differences in the local Hadley circulation, the subtropical high and the TC steering flow. Citation: Hong, C.-C., Y.-H. Li, T. Li, and M.-Y. Lee (2011), Impacts of central Pacific and eastern Pacific El Ninos on tropical cyclone tracks over the western North Pacific, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L16712, doi:10.1029/2011GL048821.