Observed warming of sea surface temperature in response to tropical cyclone Thane in the Bay of Bengal

Abstract

An unusual near-surface warming was seen in observations from a moored buoy BD11 at 14°N/83°E, and a nearby Argo profiling float in the Bay of Bengal, during the passage of tropical cyclone Thane, during 25-31 December 2011. The cyclone induced a warming of sea surface temperature (SST) by 0.6°C to the right of the track. Heat budget analysis based on moored observations and satellite data rules out the role of horizontal advection and net heat flux in warming the surface layer. We find that vertical mixing/entrainment in response to the cyclone, in conjunction with a pre-storm temperature inversion (subsurface ocean warmer than SST) led to the observed warming. Pre-storm and post-storm salinity and temperature profiles from an Argo float close to the mooring BD11 have higher vertical resolution than the moored data; they suggest vertical mixing of the upper 70 m of the water column. The moored observations show that the thermal inversion, erased by storm-induced mixing, reappears in a few days.