The effects of clouds, sea surface temperature, and its diurnal variation on precipitation efficiency are investigated us ing grid-scale data from nine equilibrium sensitivity cloud-resolving model experiments driven without large-scale vertical velocity. The precipitation efficiencies are respectively defined in surface rainfall, cloud, and rain microphysical budgets. We mathematically and physically demonstrate the relationship between these precipitation efficiencies. The 2 ℃ increases in spatiotemporal invariant sea surface temperature （SST） from 27 ℃ to 29 ℃ and from 29 ℃ to 31 ℃, and the inclusion of diurnal SST difference 1 ℃ and the 1℃ increase in diurnal SST difference generate opposite changes in the precipitation efficiency by changing ice cloud-radiation interactions. The radiative and microphysical processes of ice clouds have opposite effects on the precipitation efficiency because of the rainfall increase associated with the reduction in the saturation mixing ratio caused by the exclusion of radiative effects and the decrease in rainfall related to the reduction in net condensation caused by the exclusion of deposition processes. The radiative effects of water clouds on the precipitation efficiency are statistically insensitive to the radiative effects of ice clouds.
The monsoon trough （MT） is one of the large-scale patterns favorable for tropical cyclone （TC） formation over the western North Pacific （WNP）. This study re-examines TC formation by treating the MT as a large-scale background for TC activity during May-October. Over an 11-year （2000-10） period, 8.3 TC formation events on average per year are identified to occur within MTs, accounting for 43.1% of the total TC formation events in the WNP basin. This percentage is much lower than those reported in previous studies. Further analysis indicates that TC formation events in monsoon gyres were included at least in some previous studies. The MT includes a monsoon confluence zone where westerlies meet easterlies and a monsoon shear line where the trade easterlies lie north of the monsoon westerlies. In this study, the large-scale flow pattern associated with TC formation in the MT is composited based on the reference point in the confluence zone where both the zonal and meridional wind components are zero with positive vorticity. While previous studies have found that many TCs form in the confluence zone, the composite analysis indicates that nearly all of the TCs formed in the shear region, since the shear region is associated with stronger low-level relative vorticity than the confluence zone. The prevailing easterly vertical shear of zonal wind and barotropic instability may also be conducive to TC formation in the shear region, through the development of synoptic-scale tropical disturbances in the MT that are necessary for TC formation.
Typhoon Chan-Hom （2015） underwent a weakening in the tropical western North Pacific （WNP） when it interacted with a monsoon gyre, but all operational forecasts failed to predict this intensity change. A recent observational study indicated that it resulted from its interaction with a monsoon gyre on the 15-30-day timescale. In this study, the results of two numerical experiments are presented to investigate the influence of the monsoon gyre on the intensity changes of Typhoon Chan-Hom （2015）. The control experiment captures the main observed features of the weakening process of Chan-Hom （2015） during a sharp northward turn in the Philippine Sea, including the enlargement of the eye size, the development of strong convection on the eastern side of the monsoon gyre, and the corresponding strong outer inflow. The sensitivity experiment suggests that intensity changes of Chan-Hom （2015） were mainly associated with its interaction with the monsoon gyre. When Chan-Horn （2015） initially moved westward in the eastern part of the monsoon gyre, the monsoon gyre enhanced the inertial stability for the intensification of the typhoon. With its coalescence with the monsoon gyre, the development of the strong convection on the eastern side of the monsoon gyre prevented moisture and mass entering the inner core of Chan-Hom （2015）, resulting in the collapse of the eyewall. Thus, the weakening happened in the deep tropical WNP region. The numerical simulations confirm the important effects of the interaction between tropical cyclones and monsoon gyres on tropical cyclone intensity.
