STUDY ON TROPICAL CYCLONE (Syllabus: GS Paper 1 – Geography)

Context: Ocean surface waves brought on by tropical cyclones (TC) have increased over time, according to a new study (Nature Communications), which has cautioned that these could be a concern in the future.

Key Finding of Reports

• The fastest-increasing rates of tropical cyclone wave footprint (17-32 per cent per decade) were in the North Atlantic, eastern Pacific and North Indian Ocean. 
• According to the researchers, the rise in wave area is the primary cause of the trend of rising global wave energy.
• All ocean basins show a significant long-term increase in the maximum wave height, with the largest increase of 5 per cent per decade in the North Atlantic.
• The researchers suggested that the ocean warming caused by tropical cyclones goes deep enough to persist for months or years and travel far from its point of origin, potentially altering the broader patterns of ocean circulation that partly regulate Earth’s climate.

Tropical Cyclone

• About: A tropical cyclone is a warm-core low pressure system that develops over tropical or subtropical waters and has an organised circulation. 
• Example: These include hurricanes and typhoons. TCs produce high winds, large waves, extreme water levels and heavy rainfall.
• Main Role: It play an important role in maintaining the energy balance at the air-sea interface. TCs take heat energy from the ocean surface to fuel their development. 
• They also dissipate kinetic energy into the ocean through waves.
• Recent Tropical Cyclone: Freddy was a long-lived tropical system that traversed the Indian Ocean and seriously impacted Madagascar, Mozambique and parts of southeast Africa with intense rain and flooding.