Master thesis defense by Jaafar Ahmad Juneidi

Title: Relationship between sea surface temperature anomalies and the distribution and occurrence of tropical cyclones in the North Western Pacific

Abstract: This thesis addresses the distribution of tropical cyclones in the West- North Pacific and the relationship between typhoon intensity and sea surface temperatures. The work is based on reanalyzes data (ECMWF based ERA5) depicting empirical relationship between sea surface temperatures and the geographical distribution of tropical cyclones.  To get a better depiction of the high wind speeds raw data provided by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) is also used.
An objective of this work is to emphasize the role of climate change in the severity expressed by maximum wind intensity of typhoons by addressing effects of observed variations in sea surface temperatures drawing from the full tracks of typhoons. The study puts special focus on the West- North Pacific, since all the conditions for the genesis and evolution is provided by JMA and complete datasets are available at Copernicus Climate Change Service Information C3S (2019). By analyzing typhoons data, I conclude that there can be links identified in observed typhoon information made between the drivers of typhoon generation and their relation with climate change through sea surface temperature for the full cyclone tracks. Furthermore, the study identifies a possible relationship between higher sea surface temperatures with the maximum windspeed of the most extreme typhoons.