Atmosphere-ocean heat exchanges during pre-monsoon tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal

Speaker: 
Lakshmi Srikanth
Affiliation: 
Anna University, Chennai, India Nansen scientific society, Bergen.
Seminar Date: 
26. July 2011 - 12:15 - 13:00
Location: 
Lecture room, Ground Floor, NERSC

Ocean heat is an important source of energy for the devastating tropical cyclones that are regularly generated in the Bay of Bengal.

Lakshmi will examine the oceanic heat loss related to tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal in the pre-monsoon season, when most heat is available.
Differences of heat potential before and after four selected cyclones in the years 1996 to 2003 are computed both from satellite data and HYCOM model results.
Following the cyclone Nargis in April 2008, estimates of oceanic heat loss are given using nearby temperature profiles from Argo floats and compared to total heat fluxes from atmospheric reanalysis products.
The different estimates of heat fluxes are of the same order of magnitude, however the data sources disagree with respect to the amplitude and the location of the heat exchanges.