Impact of a Tropical Cyclone on Coastal Upwelling Processes

A three-dimensional numerical model is described to study theresponse of a coastal ocean excited by a tropical cyclone in the Bay of Bengal. The numericalexperiments have been carried out using the model to understand the dynamics and thermodynamics ofthe ocean due to different cyclonic systems approaching in different directions. In the firstexperiment, the model is used to simulate the vertical thermal structure of the ocean as a response ofpassage of the less intensified 1997 cyclone, which was skirting the east coast of India before crossingthe Bangladesh coast. The simulations are compared with the buoy data available during the storm period.In the next experiment, it is considered an idealized cyclone with hurricane winds movingnormal to the east coast of India crossing between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada to evolve thermalstructure and currents of the ocean. A net decrease of the SST of 6–7 °C is simulated whenthe severe cyclonic storm moved over the coastal ocean. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004