The Influences of Mesoscale Ocean Eddies on Tropical Cyclone Intensities

The impact of mesoscale ocean eddies on tropical cyclone (TC) intensities is investigated based on a combination of atmosphere-ocean coupling simulations. Results demonstrate that the warm core eddy restrains the sea surface temperature (SST) decrease, whereas the cold core eddy tends to boost such ocean response. The atmosphere-ocean coupling simulations reconfirm the notion that the warm core eddy (WCE) favors the TC intensification through reducing the SST decrease, whereas the cold core eddy (CCE) is unfavorable for TC intensification by amplifying the ocean response. There appears to be a recovery time of 36-48 h for the TC when it crosses over either a WCE or a CCE. Besides, some intuitive viewpoints are also approved: (1) the modulation effect of ocean eddies on SST response correlates positively with the TC intensity; (2) the role of ocean eddies is proportionally related to their strengths during TC-eddy interactions; (3) the feedback of ocean eddies is less pronounced when the storm crosses over eddy edges than over the eddy center; (4) the impact of ocean eddies can be overwhelmed or masked by variations of some other ocean parameters.