Numerical simulation of the marine boundary layer characteristics over the Bay of Bengal as revealed by BOBMEX-98 Pilot experiment

Abstract

An attempt has been made to study the marine boundary layer characteristics over Bay of Bengal using BOBMEX (Bay of Bengal and Monsoon Experiment) pilot experiment data sets, which was conducted between 23rd October and 12th November 1998 on board ORV Sagar Kanya. A one-dimensional multilevel atmospheric boundary layer with TKE-ε closure scheme is employed to study the marine boundary layer characteristics. In this study two synoptic situations are chosen: one represents an active convection case and the other a suppressed convection. In the present article the marine boundary layer characteristics such as temporal evolution of turbulent kinetic energy, height of the boundary layer and the airsea exchange processes such as sensible and latent heat fluxes, drag coefficient for momentum are simulated during both active and suppressed convection. Marine boundary layer height is estimated from the vertical profiles of potential temperature using the stability criterion. The model simulations are compared with the available observations.