Importance of mid-level moisture for tropical cyclone formation in easterly and monsoon environments over the Western North Pacific

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is used to simulate 22 TCs that form in monsoon environments (MTCs) and 13 TCs that form in easterly environments (ETCs) over the period 2006-10. To characterize the moisture contribution, simulations with midlevel moisture improved through assimilation of global positioning system (GPS) radio occultation (RO) data (labeled as EPH) are compared to those without (labeled as GTS).

In general, the probability of TC formation being detected in the simulations is higher for MTCs than ETCs, regardless of GPS RO assimilation, especially for the monsoon trough environment. In total, 54% of ETC formations are sensitive to the midlevel moisture patterns, while only 18% for MTC formations are sensitive, indicating that the importance of midlevel moisture is higher for ETC formations. Because of a model dry bias, the simulation of TC formation in an observed environment with lower vorticity but higher moisture is sensitive to the moisture increase through GPS RO data.