Variability of the Great Whirl and Its Impacts on Atmospheric Processes

Abstract

Using satellite remote sensing data and re-analysis products for the period of 1993–2015, the variation of a large anticyclonic eddy, the so-called Great Whirl (GW), located in the Northwest Indian Ocean off the coast of Somali, and its impacts on atmosphere were investigated. The GW is generated in early summer and decays in late fall every year. The center of the GW is located at 7.73°N, 53.20°E. The mean lifetime, sea level anomaly (SLA) difference, sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA), radius, normalized vorticity, eddy kinetic energy (EKE), and deformation rate are 169 days, 0.07 m, 0.83°C, 116.86 km, −0.53, 0.08 m2∙s-2, and 0.58, respectively. All these variables exhibit interannual variations. Composite analyses show that the maximum values of sea surface temperature (SST), wind, and water vapor anomalies occur in the northwest of the GW center. The fitting coefficient between the SST and wind speed anomaly is 1.1, indicating that, corresponding to 1 °C increases of the SST, the wind speed increases by about 1.1m∙s-1, and the fitting coefficient between the SST and water vapor anomaly is 0.45, indicating that water vapor increases by about 0.45 mm in response to 1 °C increases in the SST. In the vertical direction, the maximum and minimum values of vertical velocity anomalies and vertical transport of transient zonal momentum occur over the GW at about 900 hPa, and wind speed anomalies occur at about 950 hPa. Both the positive transport anomalies of transient zonal momentum and the positive vertical velocity anomalies on the west side of the GW can accelerate the wind speed in the lower level.