Large-scale weather events, such as monsoons and tropical cyclones, can now be more accurately predicted, according to the findings from a joint India-U.K. research project.
The findings titled ‘Closing the sea surface mixed layer temperature budget from in situ observations alone: operation Advection during BoBBLE’ were published in Nature Scientific Reports on April 27.
“Our findings show that oceanic processes play a crucial role in monsoon development through modulation of sea surface temperature (SST),” V . Vijith, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Oceanography, Cochin University of Science and Technology, lead author of the research paper, said in a release here on Tuesday.
A blueprint for future weather system observational experiments, critical for forecasting aspects like rainfall amounts, was created using a research vessel in the southern Bay of Bengal involving researchers from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; University of East Anglia in the U.K., and several Indian institutions.
Time series of oceanographic properties, including temperature, salinity, velocity, underwater radiation and subsurface mixing, along with surface fluxes of heat, were calculated from shipboard measurements on board the RV Sindhu Sadhana during the boreal summer monsoon of 2016. The measurements were made continuously for 11 days, using a novel combination of ship-based and autonomous platforms, such as ocean gliders.
Mr. Vijith said that variability in tropical sea surface temperature influences large-scale ocean-atmosphere interaction processes such as the Asian monsoon, El Niño, tropical cyclones and expansion of sea ice in the Antarctic. The study in the Bay of Bengal serves as a blueprint for future observational campaigns that aim to determine the processes that affect the variability of SST and its impact on weather systems, he said.
