This study analyzes the characteristics of Western North Pacific (WNP) tropical cyclone (TC) activity and large-scale environments according to the Western Pacific (WP) teleconnection pattern in summer. In the positive WP phase, an anomalous cyclone and an anomalous anticyclone develop in the low and middle latitudes of the East Asia, respectively. As a result, southeasterlies are reinforced in the northeast area of the East Asia including Korea and Japan which facilitates the movement of TC to this area, whereas northwesterlies are reinforced in the southwest area of the East Asia including South China and Indochina Peninsula which blocks the movement of TC to this area. Due to the spatial distribution of this reinforced pressure system, TCs develop, move, and turn more to the northeast of WNP than those in the negative WP phase. Consequently, the characteristics of this TC activity in the positive WP phase are associated with the location of upper tropospheric jet further to the northeast. Meanwhile, TCs in the negative WP phase mainly move to the west from Philippines toward south China and Indochina Peninsula. Furthermore, due to the terrain effect caused by the high passage frequency of TCs in the mainland China, the intensity of TCs are weaker than those in the positive WP phase.

This study analyzed the change in tropical cyclone (TC) activity according to the fluctuation in July-to-September average North Pacific Oscillation index (NPOI) and its underlying large-scale environment during the last 37 years from 1977 to 2013. For this purpose, seven years with highest index NPOI value (positive NPOI phase) and another seven years with lowest NPOI index value (negative NPOI phase) among the 37 years were selected as sample after excluding the ENSO years. During the positive NPOI phase, TCs were created in the east of tropical and subtropical western North Pacific and moved to the west from the Philippines toward the southern region in China or toward far eastern sea of Japan. Meanwhile, during the negative NPOI phase, TCs tended to proceed to the north toward Korea or Japan passing East China Sea from the eastern sea of the Philippines. As a result, also in the TC recurvature, TCs in positive NPOI phase showed a tendency of recurving toward more eastern direction compared to TCs in negative NPOI phase. Hence, TC intensity was stronger in negative NPOI phase which allowed more time for obtaining energy from the ocean.

This study recognized five annual cycle modes of the tropical cyclone (TC) activity in the western North Pacific using the CMA-STI data by an objective-oriented K-means cluster analysis approach. The five annual cycle modes include one normal mode and four abnormal modes: a weakened mode, two enhanced modes, and an anti-seasonal mode which suggests TC activities are enhanced in early season but suppressed in peak season. The yearly storm number and storm lifespan of both the weakened mode and the anti-seasonal mode are different from those of the two enhanced modes. The annual amplitudes of TC activity seem to be closely associated with the area of TC genesis. The discrepancies are obvious in frequencies of the five modes. However, comparison with both JMA and JTWC data suggests that the seasonality of TC activity has large bias.

In this paper, changes in the intensity (e.g., central pressure and maximum sustained wind speed) of Tropical Cyclone (TC) in summer in the regions located at 30 oN in East Asia from 1988 to 1991 were found. The intensity of TC from 1991 to 2007 was much higher than that of TC from 1965 to 1988. The reason for this was that the frequency of TCs passing China from 1991 to 2007 was much lower than that of TCs from 1965-1988 because a northeasterly wind caused by high-pressure circulation in East Asia got severer along the East Asian coast. Instead, TCs moved from the eastern region of the Tropical West Pacific to Korea and Japan mainly after passing the East China Sea due to the low-pressure circulation strengthened in the subtropical waters of East Asia. In addition, low Vertical Wind Shear (VWS) was created along the mid-latitude regions of East Asia and the main path of TCs from 1991 to 2007. Most of the regions in the Northwestern Pacific showed higher Sea Surface Temperature (SST) from 1991 to 2007, and had a good environment where TCs were able to maintain a higher intensity on the mid-latitude. In particular, a low sensible heat flux occurred due to high snow depth in East Asia in the spring of 1991 to 2007. Accordingly, the lower layer of East Asia showed high-pressure circulation, and the sea surrounding East Asia showed low-pressure circulation. Thus, the typical west-high, east-low pattern of winter atmospheric pressure was shown. The possibility of snowfall in East Asia in spring to be used as a factor for predicting the summer intensity of TC in the mid-latitude regions of East Asia was insinuated. The characteristics of TC in a low-latitude region were the same in Korea. The latest intensity of TCs got higher, and the landing location of TCs gradually changed from the west coast to the south coast.