The progress of experiment on typhoon intensity change in coastal area (EXOTICCA)

The Experiment on Typhoon Intensity Change in Coastal Area (EXOTICCA) was proposed by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and HongKong Observatory (HKO) during the 45^th Session of the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee (TC), held in Hong Kong of China in 2013, and endorsed by 46^th TC Session held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2014. The major goals and objectives of the EXOTICCA are: 1) to conduct the field campaigns on the intensity and structural characteristics of the target offshore and landfalling tropical cyclones by employing integrated and novel observation techniques, and 2) to conduct demonstration research on the utilization of the synergized field observation data with the aim of deepening the understanding of the mechanism of structure and intensity changes, to improve the relevant capability of operational analysis, NWP models forecast, reliable storm surge and flooding and associated risk assessment.

The Organization Committee (OC) of EXOTICCA was established. The kickoff and OC meeting were held in Shanghai in 2015 and 2017 respectively. The Terms of Reference, the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) Start-Up Scheme and Research Groups (RGs) Start-Up Scheme as well as the Project Understanding were established. Since 2014, the reconnaissance flights and aircraft (manned) have been conducted by HKO to collect meteorological observations (wind) for typical cyclones over the South China Sea. The mobile radio-sonde, satellite buoy array, UAV and rocket drop-sonde system were conducted by STI from 2014 to collect vertical atmospheric profiles for tropical cyclones in South China Sea and landfalling in East China region. The field campaign were run routinely during EXOTICCA, more than 10 target typhoons directly observation data were got up to now. The case studies and some demonstration research have finished collaboration with WMO typhoon landfall forecast demonstration project (WMO-TLFDP) on the target typhoon (Mujigae, etc.) intensity change analysis by using the field campaign data. The experiment will continue until 2019.