East Asia and Western Pacific METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATE

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«'..
Fig. 11 Same as Fig. 9 except for 2000 Fig. 12 The IR satellite picture at 2000
LSI, June 20. The contour interval is LST, June 20.
0.5 cm.
5. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
A numerical model was used to study the topographic and diurnal heating/cooling
effects on airflow and precipitation. The topography of Taiwan creates a strong blocking
effect during undisturbed conditions. No airflow is able to cross the Central Mountain
Range except over the area of lower mountains in southern Taiwan. During the period of
prevailing southwesterly flow, the blocking effect produces a strong southwesterly flow
to the southeast of Taiwan and a weak southerly flow over the west coastal area. The sea
breeze is strong over the entire west coast and over the central part of the east coast but
relatively weak over the southern and northern part of Taiwan. The daytime temperature
increase ranges 3-5K over the southwest, 5-7K over the north and 7-9K over the
southeast of Taiwan. Precipitation due to the sea breeze started first over the west of t
mountain in southern Taiwan and over the east of the mountain in north-central Taiwan in
early afternoon. The precipitation gradually increased in intensity and in area of coverage
throughout the afternoon, and by 2000 LST, it covered the area from southern Taiwan
across the central mountain range to the northeast coast
The numerically simulated airflow pattern and precipitation area matched, in
general, the surface wind observation and satellite cloud coverage. The assumption of the
Bowen ratio of 1 may not be exact and may need to be improved in the future. Fairly
simple relationships between latent heat flux and soil moisture have been used in the past