Typhoon Interaction with the Taiwan Topography during the Tropical Cyclone Structure - 2008 (tcs-08) Experiment

The importance of accurate typhoon forecasts to the island of Taiwan and the existing challenges in this area are reviewed by Wu and Kuo (1999). A particular area of emphasis is understanding the physical processes resulting from the interaction between typhoons and the Central Mountain Range, which runs across the center of the island. Wu and Kuo (1999) discuss much of the earlier research in this area, but additional work has continued to be done in the last decade with an increasing focus on the resulting precipitation distributions over the island. While idealized studies such as Lin et al. (2005) have been important in clarifying the basic theory of cyclone-terrain interaction, case studies of actual events continue to be necessary to apply these theoretical ideas to real storms. The island of Taiwan was located within the study area of the Tropical Cyclone Structure 2008 (TCS08) experiment which was carried out in August and September of 2008 in the western North Pacific. During the course of the TCS08, two storms made landfall on Taiwan: Typhoon Sinlaku in mid-September and Typhoon Jangmi two weeks later. These storms were both distinguished by especially large maximum rainfall accumulations, particularly in the case of Sinlaku. In this study, we will examine the effect of the Taiwan terrain on the track and precipitation distribution of these two storms using realdata numerical model simulations. We will also present preliminary model results from Typhoon Morakot which struck Taiwan a year after TCS08 and produced as much rainfall as Sinlaku and Jangmi combined.