Fig. 5: Schematic illustration of the South China Sea (SCS) buffering effect and seasonal attribution. | Nature Communications

Fig. 5: Schematic illustration of the South China Sea (SCS) buffering effect and seasonal attribution.

From: Philippine archipelago and South China Sea monsoon plus ocean cooling buffer Northwestern Pacific super typhoons

Fig. 5

Shading shows the summer-mean vertical wind shear anomaly (m s–1, relative to the zonal average), while contours indicate autumn sea surface temperature anomaly (°C, relative to the zonal average). The 3D structure represents idealized typhoon weakening across the SCS. Bar charts illustrate the seasonal contributions to typhoon weakening from monsoon shear (blue), ocean cooling (orange), and Philippine archipelago’s topographic blocking (green) during summer and autumn, based on the quantitative decomposition results shown in Table S2. Oceanic contributions (marked by asterisks) are inferred as residuals after isolating the effects of shear and topography.

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