A parametric wind field model and its application in simulating historical typhoons in the western North Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Characteristics of key parameters including the radius of maximum wind and the Holland-B parameter are investigated for historical typhoons in the western North Pacific Ocean. The latest findings on the drag coefficient are summarized. The relationship between the moving speeds of the typhoon vortexes and speeds of the large-scale environmental steering flow is also investigated using the reanalysis data. A boundary layer model that considers the boundary layer height and the wind speed ratio between the wind speeds of the typhoon vortex and those at the surface level (10 ​m) is proposed. Then, a parametric wind field model suitable for typhoons in the western North Pacific Ocean is constructed, and historical typhoons from 1949 to 2018 are simulated. The reliability of the wind field model is first verified by comparing the simulated intensities with those from the best track dataset, and then by comparing the simulated wind speeds with those from the Baoshan and Wengtian weather stations. Comparisons show that the wind field model has a high reliability in capturing the wind field within 250 ​km from the typhoon center, especially for the one within 100 ​km from the center of a strong typhoon.