Tuleya, R., and Y. Kurihara, 1978: A numerical simulation of the landfall of tropical cyclones. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 35 (2), 242-257.
Abstract: A GFDL tropical cyclone model was applied to simulate storm landfall. The
numerical model is a three-dimensional, primitive equation model and has
11 vertical levels with four in the planetary boundary layer. The horizontal
grid spacing is variable with finest resolution being 20 km near the center.
This model was used successfully in the past to investigate the development
of tropical cyclones over the ocean.
In the present experiments, a simple situation is assumed where a mature
tropical cyclone drifts onto flat land. In such a case, the landfall can
be simulated by changing the position of the coastline in the computational
domain rather than by moving the storm. As the coastline moves with a specified
speed, the surface boundary conditions are altered at the shore from those
for the ocean to those for the land by increasing the surface roughness
length and also by suppressing the evaporation.
Despite the simplicity and idealization of the experiments, the cyclone's
filling rates are quite reasonable and a decay sequence is obtained. Notable
asymmetries in the wind, moisture and precipitation fields exist relative
to the coastline at the time of landfall. Roughness-induced, quasi-steady
convergence and divergence zones are observed where onshore and offshore
winds encounter the coastline. Spiral bands propagate and exist over the
land area. A comparison of the energy and angular momentum budgets between
ocean and land surface boundary conditions indicates a simultaneous broadening
and weakening of the storm system in the decay process. The latent energy
release through condensational processes is initially augmented over land
by greater moisture convergence in the planetary boundary layer which counteracts
the lack of evaporation from the land surface.
Supplementary experiments indicate that the suppression of evaporation
is the most important factor in the decay of a storm upon landfall. When
the evaporation is suppressed, the storm eventually weakens whether the
surface roughness is increased or not. An increased surface roughness, which
causes increased inflow in the boundary layer, has little immediate negative
impact on the storm intensity. Indeed, if the supply of latent energy is
sufficient, a storm can deepen when encountering an increase in surface
roughness. The decay rate in a later period well after landfall is influenced
by the rate with which the water vapor of the storm system is depleted in
the earlier period immediately after landfall.