Tropical cyclone “Vayu” generated gravity waves (20–60 min) in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere over Kolhapur

Abstract

Tropical cyclones are one of the potential sources of gravity waves, which can transport energy and momentum to higher heights through their vertical propagation and interaction with the background flow and thereby influence the dynamics of the upper atmosphere. High-resolution wind data acquired by the Medium Frequency (MF) radar at Kolhapur (16.69°N, 74.24°E) are utilized to study the high frequency gravity waves (20–60 min) associated with the tropical cyclone named “Vayu” formed in the Indian Arabian Sea in June 2019. An enhancement of the gravity wave (GW) activities in the meridional wind is observed during 13–15 June 2019. The source of the gravity wave is the tropical Vayu cyclone of category 2 storm. We employed the gravity wave variance data from NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) satellite for our analysis over stratospheric heights. The enhancement of gravity wave variance in both the stratosphere mesosphere heights and the low values of OLR indicate the strong convection associated with cyclone, the source of observed gravity waves. In the present study we analyzed the horizontal propagation direction of the cyclone generated gravity waves using perturbation ellipse, it is found to be in the north–south plane. The temperature profiles obtained from the SABER instrument on board TIMED satellite indicate the presence of mesospheric inversion layer with an amplitude of nearly 40 K on the day of large gravity wave variance (June 13, 2019). These results indicate the cyclone can generate gravity waves which can propagate to higher heights and modify the MLT thermal structure, providing evidence for the vertical coupling between lower and upper atmosphere.