Why in news?
Meteorologists and Atmospheric Science Experts say: Higher than normal temperatures in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) may be whetting ‘super cyclones’ and the lockdown, indirectly, may have played a role.
Super cyclone Amphan that is barrelling towards West Bengal is the strongest storm to have formed in the BoB since the Super Cyclone of 1999.
Warmer waters Leading to Super Cyclone
- Cyclones gain their energy from the heat and moisture generated from warm ocean surfaces.
- The BoB has posted record summer temperatures a fall-out, as researchers have warned, of global warming from fossil fuel emissions that has been heating up oceans.
- Cyclone Amphan intensified from a category-1 cyclone to category-5 in 18 hours, an unusually quick evolution, fuelled by high temperatures in the BoB.
Lockdown impact
- the elevated ocean temperatures this year could, in part, be explained by the lockdown.
- Reduced particulate matter emissions during the lockdown meant fewer aerosols, such as black carbon, that are known to reflect sunlight and heat away from the surface.
- Every year, increased particulate pollution from the Indo-Gangetic plains is transported towards the BoB and this also influences the formation of clouds over the ocean.
Click Here to Read more about the Formation of Tropical Cyclones
-Source: The Hindu
