Indian Journal of Radio Space Physics Vol. 33, February, 2004, pp. 35-42

Orissa super cyclone of October 1999 as revealed by IRS-P4 satellite data

S G Narkhedkar, P N Mahajan, R M Khaladkar & Sathy Nair

Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune 411 008 and

PC Joshi & P K Pal

Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad 380 053

Received 20 February 2003; revised 25 August 2003; accepted 27 November 2003

A super cyclone hit Orissa coast during 24-31 Oct. 1999 causing vast damage to property and life. Life cycle of this su­per cyclonic storm from its genesis to landfall is studied using IRS-P4 satellite derived parameters over the oceanic region. The parameters, viz. sea surface temperature, sea surface wind, integrated water vapour, cloud liquid water content are studied over the region 5 -25° Nand 70- I00°E. Synoptic surface pressure charts were compared with INSAT imagery. The IRS-P4 satellite data supplemented the data from INSAT in studying various characteristics associated with the super cy­clone.

Keywords: Orissa super cyclone, Sea surface temperature, Winds, Clouds, IRS-P4, Satellite imagery PACS No.: 92.60.Qx

1 Introduction There is increasing appreciation of the importance

of ocean and its variability to human activities, to­gether with the advent of new technologies for ob­serving the ocean. Since most observing networks are confined to land, satellite observations of cyclones over ocean are a valuable source of meteorological information.

The Bay of Bengal area is extremely vulnerable to very high storm surges and storm tides caused by tropical cyclones (TCs). The advent of meteorological satellites made an immediate global impact on the detection and monitoring of TCs.

The formation, intensification and movement, etc. of these devastating events (TCs), particularly, over the Indian Ocean (Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea) have been studied by various researchers 14 in detail, considering various cases.

A study of the super cyclone, which formed during 24-31 Oct.1999 over the Bay of Bengal has been pre­sented in this paper. It was the most intense cyclone in the last 114 years for the state of Orissa. It produced fierce and very strong winds along with huge storm surge and catastrophic floods causing severe damage in districts of Orissa and West Bengal. Super cyclones are the intense systems, which are associated with surface wind speed more than 60 m/s [India Mete­orological Department (IMD) report, 1998].

The IRS-P4 satellite data supplemented the data from INSA T in studying various characteristics asso­ciated with the super cyclone. The geophysical pa­rameters derived from IRS-P4 satellite with the help of Multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR) payload have been analysed during the life cycle of the cyclone. The MSMR works on the prin­ciple of collecting radiation in microwave bands from the earth's surface with the associated advantage of cloud penetration and hence all-weather capacity. The MSMR is configured as an eight-channel radiometer with both vertical and horizontal polarizations in four frequencies, viz. 6.6, 10.65, 18 and 21 GHz. Its swath is 1360 km. The MSMR derived parameters and their ranges are follows:

Integrated water vapour (IWV) Cloud liquid water (CL W) Sea surface wind (SSW) Sea surface temperature (SST)

0.2-7.5 g/cm2

0-80 mg/ cm2

2-24 rnls 273-303 K

These products are available in three resolutions, i.e. 50, 75 and 150 km. But as all the four parameters are available at 150 km, for consistency, analyses of these parameters have been performed using the data at 150 km resolution.

The JNSA T satellite cloud imageries are available, which give an idea about the geographical position of the weather disturbance and its movement. The

36 INDIAN J RADIO & SPACE PHYS, FEBRUARY 2004

MSMR data are available twice a day. Being a polar orbiting satellite, the IRS-P4 provides the information about the system whenever it passes over the disturbance.

2 Methodology The geophysical parameters derived from IRS-P4

are used to better understand the genesis, movement of the storm in a qualitative and quantitative manner. The problems of the data sparseness over oceanic re­gions and the consequent limitations of the track pre­dictions by Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models are well known. The system has been studied with the help of satellite imageries of INSA T and sur­face weather chart analyses of IMD.

3 Data and synoptic situation The MSMR data have been procured from the Na­

tional Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad, India. It is understood that before supplying these data products to the research community and other agen­cies it has been scrutinized and validated thoroughly with the help of several research institutions and agencies in India such as Indian Institute of Science (liSe), Bangalore; India Meteorological Department (IMD); Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmed­abad, National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), New Delhi; CSIR Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simula­tion (C-MACS), Bangalore; National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa; National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai; National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa; Na­tional Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), Kochi, etc. by conducting field experiments. These data products have been used by several re­searchers for their studies.

These data products have been validated with in situ observations comprising ship and moored buoy observations. The comparison of all geophysical pa­rameters, except CL W with in situ and analysed fields were found to be in reasonably good agreement5

. In­tercomparison studies with other satellite data show that MSMR parameters, viz. SST, SSW and IWY are compatible with these data sets6

• 7

. The CLW values differ from NWP model analysis as well as DMSP satellite data sets6

·8

. Mitra et a/.9 have shown that the observed values of CL W from IRS-P4 were having a positive bias compared to NCMRWF analysis over the region of satellite pass. The accuracy of different

parameters is reported by Gohil et a/. 10• Basu et al. 11

have shown t:1at the satellite-derived winds exhibit significant positive impact on the simulations when the model was correctly initialized by altimeter obser­vations. Rizvi et at. 12 have also confirmed the utility of MSMR data in NWP model. They concluded that with the inclusion of MSMR derived SSW, the global wind field has more influence than the mass field and the impact was seen at almost all the vertical levels. These studies indicate that except for CL W other data are quite useful for the system formed over the oce­anic region around India.

A well-marked low-pressure area lay over Gulf of Siam and neighborhood on 24 Oct.1999. Associated cyclonic circulation extended up to lower tropo­spheric levels. Moving westwards, it concentrated into a depression over North Andaman Sea and neighborhood at 1200 hrs UTC of 25th and lay near lat. 12.5°NIIong. 98.0°E. It further moved in a west northwesterly direction and intensified into a cyclonic storm and lay centred at 0300 hrs UTC of 26th near lat.l3.5°NIIong.95.5°E, about 350 km northeast of Port Blair, and at 1200 hrs UTC of 26th near lat.I4.5°NIIong.94.0°E. It further intensified into a severe cyclonic storm at 0300 hrs UTC of 27th and lay centred near lat. 16.0°N/long. 92.0°E, about 750 km southeast of Paradip. It moved in a northwesterly direction and lay at 1200 hrs UTC of 27 near lat. 17.2°N/1ong. 90.3°E. At 0300 hrs UTC of 28th, it was centred near lat. 18.0°Nilong. 88.0°E. It became a super cyclonic storm at 1800 hrs UTC of 28th near lat. 19.3°N/Iong. 87.2°E. At 0300 hrs UTC of 29th, it was near lat. 19.9°NIIong. 86.7°E. The cyclone crossed Orissa coast near Paradip on 29th between 0400 and 0530 hrs UTC. After crossing the coast, it weakened into a very severe cyclonic storm and lay

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Fig. 1-Track of the super cyclone

NARKHEDKAR et al. : ORISSA SUPER CYCLONE STUDY BY IRS-P4 DATA 37

centred at 1200 hrs UTC of 29th near lat. 20.5°N/long. 86.0°E, about 30 km northeast of Bhu­baneswar. It remained practically stationary and fur­ther weakened into cyclonic storm and lay centred at 0300 hrs UTC of 30th near lat. 20.5°N/long. 86.0°E, very close to Bhubaneswar. It, then, weakened into a depression at 0300 hrs UTC of 31st near lat.21.0°Nilong. 87.0°E, when it was very close to

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Chand bali. Moving in a southeasterly direction, it again centred into the sea and weakened into a well­marked low pressure area over northwest Bay and adjoining parts of north Orissa-West Bengal coast in the evening of 31st (I MD report).The INSA T satellite imageries for 0600 hrs UTC for the above period and corresponding surface analysis charts were taken from IMD.

Fig. 2- Pressure patterns for the different dates for the complete life cycle of the super cyclone

38 INDIAN J RADIO & SPACE PHYS, FEBRUARY 2004

4 Results and discussion The track of the cyclone is depicted in Fig. I. The

synoptic features with the centre of the system are depicted in surface pressure charts (Fig. 2) . These sur­face pressure analyses are drawn by experienced me-

teorologists from IMD based on the available station data. There is very good resemblance between the movement of circulation patterns (Fig. 2) and INSA T cloud imageries (Fig. 3). In both the figures (Figs 2 and 3) the position of centre of the system has been

Fi g. 3- IN SAT imageries for the different dates for the complete life cycle of the super cyclone

NARKHEDKAR eta/.: ORISSA SUPER CYCLONE STUDY BY IRS-P4 DATA 39

caught very well as indicated in Fig. I. The INSA T imagery aiso depicts the sy noptic situation . Dense cloud patches were seen over the area of the TC gene-

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sis. They were seen to move in the west north­westward direction (Fig. 3).

The MSMR data were analysed using GrADS

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Fig. 4- Analyses for SST for the complete life-period of the cyclone [Grid 1: (150 x 150); both passes]

40 INDIAN J RADIO & SPACE PHYS, FEBRUARY 2004

software, using Cressman's Successive Correction method. The MSMR derived SSTs are shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen from Fig. 4 that SSTs were

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above 27 °C on 24 and 25 Oct. 1999 during the stages of the low and depression, respectively . On and after 26th (cyclonic storm stage) up to the landfall; the sea

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Fig. 5- Analyses for SSW for the complete life period of the cyclone [Grid 1: (150 x 150) ; both passes]

NARKHEDKAR et al. : ORISSA SUPER CYCLONE STUDY BY IRS-P4 DATA 41

was warmer and the values were above 27 oc and, sometimes, more than 30 oc. On 29th the cyclone crossed the coast and started weakening. After 29th it

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can be seen that there was decrease in the SSTs. It is a wellknown fact that the post monsoon cyclones over Indian subcontinent have 1200-1400 km diameter

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Fig. 6 - Analyses for WV for the complete life period of the cyclone [Grid I: (I 50 x I 50); both passes]

42 INDIAN 1 RADIO & SPACE PHYS, FEBRUARY 2004

areal coverage. The SSTs were found to be consistent with this fact. The drop in the temperature up to

22°C on 26th and 30th may nqt be reliable. However, it may be due to contamination of brightness tempera­ture due to certain environmental conditions at the time of satellite pass.

Figure 5 shows SSW. The increase in wind speed is noticed as system intensified from low to super cy­clone stage. The values of sea surface winds range from 4 to 12 rnls on 24th and 25t". From 26th onwards the values started increasing when the system was intensifying and the SSWs reached up to 18 rnls on 29th. Although, it was super cyclone and reached the maximum wind intensity of up to 70 m/s (as per IMD's report), the MSMR was not able to catch them as it has its own range limitations and was able to de­pict the maximum wind speed up to 24 m/s.

Figure 6 shows IWV in g/cm2• It can be seen that

there was an overall increase in the water vapour over the region where the cyclone has formed. The values range from 4 to 8 g/cm2

. It is indicative of the fact that there was advection of moisture over the disturbed area due to strong winds.

Same features were observed in the case of CL W (figures not shown). Throughout the system period, the values were in the range of 20-45 mg/cm2

• The presence of the moisture can be confirmed with the help of INSA T satellite imageries, where dense clouds are seen and also by the chief rainfall amounts within 24 h reported by IMD over the area. Although the CL W values may not be accurate, they show maximum values at the centre with decreasing trend outwards.

Quantitative as well as qualitative analyses of these geophysical parameters have proved the usefulness of remotely sensed data over the oceanic region, which is otherwise data sparse region. It also helped in tracking the systems like TCs, ·which are very much devastating in nature.

5 Concluding remarks (i) The IRS-P4 geophysical parameters over the

disturbed area are consistent with the synoptic situa­tion. It is revealed from this study that such remote sensing satellite data from MSMR can be used as an additional data to bring out some aspects of weather systems formed over the oceanic region. These data are supplementary to the data from INSA T and other satellites.

(ii) The study of this cyclone proves the importance of IRS-P4 data for studying and better understanding of the devastating events over the Indian region.

(iii) Although the parameters were able to depict the system very well, they were unable to depict the depth/intensity of the system.

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Dr G B Pant, Di­

rector, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, and Dr S S Singh, Former Head, Forecasting Re­search Division, for their help and encouragement for this study. Thanks are also due to National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, for the data and to IMD for INSAT imageries_ supplied through SDUC (Sec­ondary Data Utilization Centre) work station in Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology. Thanks are also due to Dr M S Narayanan and Dr A Sarkar, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, for their kind sup­port.

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