Hi, I'm Beata Latos
currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Typhoon Research Center, Jeju National University, South Korea
MY RECENT work (1)
Our new study identified meteorological conditions resulting in a rare cyclone formation near the Equator. In March and April 2021, these conditions caused the development of Tropical Cyclone Seroja, which led to the death of at least 272 people in Indonesia and East Timor.
Latos, B., Peyrillé, P., Lefort, T., Baranowski, D.B., Flatau, M.K., Flatau, P.J., Riama, N.F., Permana, D.S., Rydbeck, A.V. and Matthews, A.J., 2023. The role of tropical waves in the genesis of Tropical Cyclone Seroja in the Maritime Continent. Nature Communications
Read the story behind the paper here.
MY RECENT work (2)
Sulawesi is the fourth largest and third most populated of the Indonesian islands. Makassar is the capital and the largest urban area of the island, as well as the 8th biggest city in Indonesia with a population of nearly 1.5 million. The city is located west of a mountain chain and is adjacent to the Java Sea. This area constitutes the southwestern Sulawesi region, which is particularly prone to flooding. In this region between 1999 and 2018, nearly half of all natural disasters (46%) were floods. In January 2019, southwest Sulawesi, including Makassar, experienced its largest flood on record.
Latos, B., Lefort, T., Flatau, M. K., Flatau, P. J., Permana, D. S., Baranowski, D. B., ... & Schmidt, J. M. (2021). Equatorial waves triggering extreme rainfall and floods in southwest Sulawesi, Indonesia. Monthly Weather Review
Orography (m) of the Western and Central Maritime Continent. Significant locations referred to in the main text are marked.
Schematic depiction of the key processes responsible for extreme rainfall events and floods in southwest Sulawesi 3 days before (day-3), a day before (day-1) and during the event (day0).
Abbreviations are: C - convergence in the Kelvin Wave, ER - Equatorial Rossby Wave, LLJ - Low-Level Jet, SV - Sumatra Vortex. Background are winds at 850hPa, solid line represents the Equatorial Rossby Wave vortex, dashed line represents cross-equatorial flow. The location of the mesoscale convective system is qualitatively depicted by an ellipse. Left panels: time evolution of approximated zonal wind anomaly (m/s, green line) and precipitation (mm, purple line) in southwest Sulawesi area.
Research has shown that heavy rainfall and devastating flooding was triggered by a "perfect storm", when three different tropical weather systems all arrived there simultaneously. The largest of these weather systems is known as the "Madden-Julian Oscillation" moved slowly eastward from the Indian Ocean over Indonesia. Embedded within this, two smaller weather systems, a "Kelvin wave" and a "Rossby wave" also developed and arrived over Sulawesi, which resulted in extraordinary strength and intensity rains. Further analysis of 20 years of weather data revealed that flooding was twice as likely than normal to occur if a Kelvin or Rossby wave was present, and eight times more likely if both were present.
Airlplane window view for Makassar (Sulawesi, Indonesia)