Sensitivity of Typhoon Forecast to Prescribed Sea Surface Temperature Data

This study investigates the impact of the sea surface temperature (SST) on the forecast of two typhoons, which consecutively hit South Korea in 2020. SST data were obtained from the Daily Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST) version 2 and HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model/Navy Coupled Ocean Data Assimilation (HYCOM/NCODA; GLBy0.08/expt_93.0). When verified using in situ observational data, the OISST data did not accurately estimate the changes in SST during each typhoon’s landfall period compared to the HYCOM data since it has a relatively low temporal resolution. To investigate the impact of these two SST data on typhoon forecasts, we conducted sensitivity experiments using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The results showed that simulated typhoon intensities were significantly improved in the simulations with HYCOM data (HY runs), while typhoon track forecast performances were similar in both runs. In addition, the forecast performances of the maximum wind speed at 10 m during the typhoon landfall period were improved in the HY runs. Therefore, this study showed that the overall typhoon intensity and forecast performances during the landfall period could be improved when the higher temporal-resolution SST data were prescribed in the model boundary conditions for a better representation of typhoon-induced SST changes.