North Pacific tropical cyclones and teleconnections

Abstract

This thesis investigated the hypothesis that variations in tropical cyclone (TC) activity in the western North Pacific (WNP) may affect the teleconnection between the tropical WNP and North America. The teleconnection patterns of the 500 hPa geopotential height between a base point in the WNP (20 N 115 E) and a domain over North America (30 - 45 N, 70 -90 W) from 1951-2001 were examined. The 25 most active and the 25 least active TC years for two regions with the highest climatological average of TC activity, near the Philippines and Taiwan, respectively, were compared to determine if stronger teleconnection patterns occur during the more active years. For both regions, the correlation pattern is significant during active years and insignificant during inactive years, with the results based on TC activity in the Philippines region showing a larger difference. An analysis of 500 hPa mean winds showed weaker winds in the midlatitudes during active TC years when the teleconnection is stronger, which suggests that the teleconnection may consist mainly of Lau and Weng's (2000) zonally-elongated mode (Mode 1). Further cross correlations of the geopotential height and TC frequency parameters with the tropical eastern and western Pacific sea-surface temperatures (SST's) showed a significant correlation between TC activity and tropical eastern Pacific SST's, but the North America-WNP correlation is unlikely to be a result of a direct influence of SST's on the two regions.