Investigating the dynamics of Borneo vortices and their impacts
- Academic lead
- Juliane Schwendike, School of Earth and Environment, j.schwendike@leeds.ac.uk
- Industrial lead
- Prince Xavier, Met Office, prince.xavier@metoffice.gov.uk
- Co-supervisor(s)
- John Marsham, School of Earth and Environment, j.marsham@leeds.ac.uk , Stephen Griffiths, School of Mathematics, s.d.griffiths@leeds.ac.uk , John Methven, University of Reading, j.methven@reading.ac.uk (External), Muhammad Fridaus Bin Abdullah, Met Malaysia, kumar@met.gov.my (External)
- Project themes
- Climate & Weather, Computational & Analytical Tools, Data-driven methods, Multiphysics & Complex Fluids
Borneo vortices are synoptic-scale cyclonic disturbances with distinct structure and behaviour and unique to the Maritime Continent during boreal winter. They can often be found north or west of Borneo (Fig. 1). They are associated with major impacts including heavy rainfall, landslides and rough seas in Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand, which makes it essential for forecasters in Southeast Asia to be able to understand and forecast them.
Understanding the dynamics of Borneo vortices and forecasting their track and impact is a key challenge for numerical weather prediction models. This project provides a way to investigate Borneo vortex dynamics in detail, to evaluate how certain dynamical processes are represented in the Met Office Unified Model (MetUM) model with the aim of improving our ability to forecast these weather systems more accurately, ultimately benefiting people at risk.
The scientific objectives of the project are:
- Conduct a detailed investigation into the processes that lead to the formation, intensification, track and impacts of Borneo vortices;
- Develop an understanding of how large-scale drivers impact Borneo vortices;
- Investigate the impact of orography on the formation and track of Borneo vortices.
Figure 1: Example of a Borneo vortex on 12 January 2018 at 00 UTC which is located in the northwest of Borneo. The streamlines at 850 hPa are based on ERA5 reanalysis data, and the rainfall is from GPM IMERG. The asterisk marks the centre of the vortex.