| Session Details | |
| Section | AS - Atmospheric Sciences |
| Session Title | Observational and Modeling Studies on Tropical Cyclones |
| Main Convener | Prof. Uma Charan Mohanty (Indian Institute of Technology, India) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Jayaraman K V Potty (RIMES, ADPC, Thailand) Dr. Dev Niyogi (Purdue University, United States) Dr. Sundararaman.G Gopalakrishnan (Hurricane Research Division(HRD), AOML, NOAA, United States) |
| Session Description | Tropical cyclones are one of the deadliest and costliest weather phenomena worldwide. As a killer, tropical cyclones and associated hazards are far ahead of any other natural disaster, accounting for about 64% of the total loss of life. In the mature stage, tropical cyclones are known by different names in different parts of the world. In the Atlantic and eastern Pacific, they are known as ‘hurricane’. They are known as ‘typhoon’ in western Pacific, and as ‘tropical cyclone’ in the Indian Ocean. Conceived over warm tropical oceans and nurtured by the converging moisture, the mature tropical cyclones are associated with violent wind, torrential rainfall and storm surges. Strong wind can cause damage to structures, crops, power supply and communication systems. It also causes loss of life and generates devastating storm surges. Storm surge causes coastal flooding, damages to property, loss of life and intrusion of saline water in coastal areas. Intrusion of saline water in turn causes loss of soil fertility in coastal areas. While effects of strong wind and storm surge are concentrated within few tens of kilometers from the coastline, heavy rainfall often affects hundreds of kilometers from the coast. Flooding due to heavy rainfall may occur even after the storm has lost its hurricane intensity and made a lanfall. Heavy rainfall causes loss of life, destruction of vegetation, crops and livestock and contamination of water supply. Timely and reasonably accurate prediction of movement and intensity of the cyclonic storms can significantly reduce the loss of lives and damage to property. For this purpose, extensive studies on climatology, characteristics and structure of the tropical cyclones are highly necessary in research as well as operational endeavor. As tropical cyclones are formed over data sparse oceanic region, the enhancement of observational data sets from satellite, radar, aircraft reconciliation and UAV play an important role for better understanding of tropical cyclones. The genesis and evolution of tropical cyclones involve complex interaction mechanism of mesoscale convective systems embedded in large-scale circulation. Meanwhile, the genesis and evolution of tropical cyclones in the ongoing global warming scenario clearly suggested a large increase in severe cyclonic storms, though the total number of cyclonic storms remains almost unchanged. It is also noted that, a very strong relationship is observed between category 4 and 5 cyclones with sea surface temperature. Hence, better simulation and prediction of track and intensity of cyclonic storms with improved warning system can benefit the society enormously. This programme has great significance in view of exchanging ideas and recent findings of scientific research in the national and international platforms. The genesis and evolution of such extreme event need to be studied comprehensively. More accurate track and intensity prediction with different methods are important and challenging task before the scientific community. We welcome contributions to the session that will address all these issues on observational and modeling aspects of tropical cyclones. We expect overwhelming response to the session as it covers an important topic of wider interest worldover. |