Monsoon-Frontal Interactions Drive Cyclone Biparjoy's Wake Recovery in
the Arabian Sea
Abstract
Cold wakes generated by cyclones enhance productivity and impact the
local air-sea interaction, paths and intensities of subsequent storms in
the region. However, in-situ observations of the recovery across such
wakes are rare. A cold wake in the Arabian Sea was surveyed using
multiple ship-board instruments approximately 10 days after the passage
of Cyclone Biparjoy in 2023. The wake, nearly 30
\unit{\km} wide, had a stronger (weaker)
buoyancy gradient at its eastern (western) edge and assumed a upfront
(downfront) orientation relative to the south-westerly monsoon winds.
This resulted in notable asymmetry in vertical temperature, salinity and
velocity structures at the edges of the wake. While the wake recovery
following a cyclone is often attributed to one-dimensional diurnal
heating and cooling process, these observations underscore the role of
coupling of monsoon winds and the underlying three-dimensional
submesoscale fronts in speeding the recovery of a slow-moving cyclone
through various submesocale processes.