Typhoon observations from the surface buoys in the western North Pacific subtropical ocean

Typhoon, the tropical cyclone that occurs in the subtropical regions of the northwest Pacific, causes multiple and serious disasters in the coastal regions of East Asia. Giving the timely warning messages which include accurate information about the tracks and the intensities of typhoons to the public is a critical issue. To study the air-sea energy fluxes within typhoon, we thus deployed two surface buoys in the subtropical area of the northwest Pacific Ocean during typhoon seasons since 2017 where both buoys successfully survived after several typhoons passed them and measured the valuable datasets. Those data include air temperature and pressure, relative humidity, rainfall, solar radiations, wind, wave, current, and upper-ocean temperature and salinity profiles. The recorded typhoons that the buoys are located inside the region that the wind speed larger than 34 kt are Nesat (C1) and Hato (TS) in 2017, Mangkhut (C5) in 2018, and Danas (TS), Lekima (C4), Bailu (TS), and Lingling (TS) in 2019. The measured maximum of significant wave height and wind speed were about 10 m and 30 m/s, respectively. During the typhoon periods, the variations of the ocean heat fluxes were dominated by the latent heat flux, and the maximum value was around 800 W/m². After typhoon passed, the maximum decrease of the upper ocean (0~300 m) heat content was about 4.9 GJ/m². The features of the ocean response to each typhoon will be presented.