(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2012-09)
Miltenberger, Alexander R.
The purpose of this study is to understand the interactions of tropical cyclones with ocean
eddies. In particular we examine the influence of a cold-core eddy on the cold wake
formed during the passage of Typhoon Fanapi (2010). The three-dimensional version of
the numerical Price–Weller–Pinkel (PWP) vertical mixing model has previously been
used to simulate and study the cold wakes of Atlantic hurricanes. The model has not
been used in comparison with observations of typhoons in the Western Pacific Ocean. In
2010 several typhoons were studied during the Impact of Typhoons on the Ocean in the
Pacific (ITOP) field campaign and Fanapi was particularly well observed. We use these
observations and the 3DPWP to understand the ocean cold wake generated by Fanapi.
The cold wake of Fanapi was advected by a cyclonic eddy that was south of the typhoon
track. The 3DPWP model outputs with and without an eddy are compared with
observations made during the field campaign. These observations are compared to model
outputs with eddies in a series of positions right and left of the storm track in order to
study effects of mesoscale eddies on ocean vertical mixing in the cold wake of typhoons.
