O. P. Singh saarc meteorological Research Centre (smrc)



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Trends and Periodicities in the Annual Frequency of Cyclonic Disturbances over the North Indian Ocean

O. P. Singh

SAARC Meteorological Research Centre (SMRC)

Abhawa Bhaban, Agargaon, Dhaka-1207

Bangladesh



1. Introduction
The tropical cyclones are important weather events of the tropics. They have profound impact on the coastal regions of tropical countries. The frequency of their occurrence over the North Indian Ocean is a significant weather parameter for the coastal population of South Asian nations. Majority of intense cyclones forms during post monsoon (especially during October and November) and premonsoon (especially during May). During the premonsoon period cyclones of Bay of Bengal generally move northward and strike Northeast coast of India or Bangladesh coast after recurvature. A pronounced shift towards Westcentral Bay occurs during the postmonsoon period due to which most of the cyclones strike Southeast coast of India and some of them even cross. Sri Lanka Coast. The months of November and May account for highest number of intense cyclones.
The cyclone frequency exhibits variations of different time scales. For instance interannual variations in the frequency has been documented by Shapiro (1982), Gray (1984), Nicholls (1984) and Chan (1985). ENSO seems to influence the tropical cyclone frequency. Lesser number of postmonsoon cyclones tend to form over the North Indian Ocean during ENSO years (Singh and Rout, 1999).
Other than interannual variations there are variations of other time scales also. If long -term variations of cyclone frequency are properly documented then the epochs of higher and lower frequencies could be foreshadowed much in advance.
This is precisely the objective of present study.

2. Data and computations


The frequencies of total cyclonic disturbances and cyclonic storms that formed over the North Indian Ocean have been obtained from the storm atlas published by the India Meteorological Department (IMD, 1979) and presented in Table 3. The linear trend coefficients for the frequencies have been calculated using the method of least squares. The power spectrum analysis (Blackman and Tukey, 1958 ; Panofsky and Brier, 1958 and Jenkins, 1961) has been applied to find out the significant periods in the frequencies.
3. Results and discussion
The results have been presented in Tables 1 and 2. Pentad running totals of frequency alongwith trends have been depicted in Figs 1 and 2.
3.1. Trend
Table 1 shows that the trend in the annual frequency of depressions and cyclones over the North Indian Ocean has been -5.4/100 years. Statistically the negative correlation coefficient is significant at 99.5% level. The decreasing trend of about 5 disturbances per hundred years is very important keeping in view the average annual frequency of depressions and cyclones which is about 15. The decreasing trend is clearly brought out by Fig. 1.
When we consider the frequency of tropical cyclones alone (i.e. maximum wind 33 knots) then the decreasing trend is not statistically significant. The trend is only -0.8/100 years. This implies that the annual frequency of tropical cyclones over the North Indian Ocean has decreased at the rate of about one cyclone per hundred years. This trend also becomes practically significant if we consider the average frequency of about 5 cyclones per year.
From the foregoing discussions one could easily infer that it is the frequency of depressions (i.e. systems with maximum wind speed  33 knots) which has registered a marked decreasing trend over the North Indian Ocean. As the frequency of depressions is maximum over the Bay of Bengal during summer monsoon, it could be inferred that lesser number of monsoon depressions form now. As a matter of fact the frequency of monsoon depressions has almost halved during the past century.


TABLE 1. Results of trend analysis


Parameter

Trend per hundred years


Level of significance

Annual frequency of tropical depressions and cyclones over the North Indian Ocean.


- 5.4


99.5%


Annual frequency of tropical cyclones over the North Indian Ocean.

- 0.8

Not significant

3.2 Periodicity


It is seen from Table 2 that annual frequency of tropical cyclones in the North Indian Ocean possesses a prominent 29 year cycle (significant at 99.5% level). The other oscillation present in cyclone frequency is of 2-4 years with significance levels varying from 90% to 97.5%. This oscillations could be associated with the ENSO-scale.
The frequency of total cyclonic disturbance also has a 29 year period but significance level is lower (Only 85%). ENSO-scale cycle however, is prominent. In addition to these two oscillations a highly significant period of 87 years is also there. It may be remarked that this long-term period corresponds to monsoon depression frequency oscillations in the Bay of Bengal.


TABLE 2. Results of power spectrum analysis (values in the parentheses are significance levels)


Parameter

Period in years


Annual frequency of tropical depressions and cyclones over the North Indian Ocean.

87, 29, 3.7

(99% (85% (85%)


2.7, 2.4, 2.3

(85%) (99%) (90%)


Annual frequency of tropical cyclones over the North Indian Ocean.


29, 3.6 3.4

(99.5% (97.5% (90%)
2.3, 2.2

(90%) (97%)




3.3. Concluding Remarks
The results presented here have shown that the annual frequency of tropical depression and cyclones in the North Indian Ocean has decreased considerably during the past century. It has registered a decrease of about 33%. But the frequency of cyclones alone has registered a slight decreasing trend of about one cyclone per hundred years which is also a decline of about 20%. It may be pointed out that the changes in the frequencies in different seasons do not seem to be uniform. Analysis of monthly frequencies would reveal finer details.
A 29 year oscillation in the cyclone frequency seems to be the characteristic of the North Indian Ocean. The depression frequency is characterized by a long term, i.e. 87 year cycle. ENSO-scale oscillation is present in the depression and cyclone frequencies both.








TABLE 3. Frequencies of total cyclonic disturbances and cyclonic storms over the north Indian Ocean.


Year

Total Cyclonic disturbances


Cyclonic Storms


1901

18

3

1902

18

7

1903

18

8

1904

18

4

1905

15

6

1906

16

7

1907

19

8

1908

21

6

1909

14

4

1910

12

5

1911

17

5

1912

14

6

1913

17

6

1914

14

4

1915

14

6

1916

15

8

1917

18

3

1918

15

5

1919

16

6

1920

14

3

1921

17

4

1922

20

6

1923

18

4

1924

18

6

1925

21

7

1926

17

10

1927

23

7

1928

17

7

1929

19

6

1930

17

10

1931

16

5

1932

16

6

1933

18

8

1934

17

5

1935

15

5

1936

18

6

1937

19

6

1938

11

4

1939

21

7

1940

16

9

1941

19

8

1942

15

5

1943

17

7

1944

20

8

1945

16

3

1946

20

5

1947

19

4

1948

18

6

1949

13

1

1950

16

4

1951

15

4

1952

17

4

1953

12

2

1954

14

2

1955

13

6

1956

14

4

1957

8

3

1958

12

5

1959

16

6

1960

15

5

1961

18

5

1962

13

5

1963

17

6

1964

16

7

1965

14

6

1966

18

8

1967

15

6

1968

13

7

1969

14

6

1970

15

7

1971

15

7

1972

18

7

1973

16

6

1974

12

7

1975

20

7

1976

14

10

1977

19

6

1978

17

6

1979

11

5

1980

14

3

1981

12

6

1982

19

5

1983

8

3

1984

7

3

1985

15

7

1986

8

1

1987

9

5

1988

9

3

4. REFERENCES


Blackman, R. B., and J. W. Tukey, 1958: The measurement of Power spectra, Dover Publications, New York, 190 pp.
Chan, J. C. - L., 1985: Tropical cyclone activity in the northwest Pacific in relation to the El-Nino/Southern Oscillation phenomenon, Mon. Wea. Rev, 113, 599-606.
Gray, W. M., 1984: Atlantic seasonal hurricane frequency. Part I: El-Nino and 30 mb quasi-biennial oscillation influences. Mon. Wea. Rev., 112, 1649-1668.
IMD, 1979: Tracks of storms and depressions in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, IMD, New Delhi.
Jenkins, G.M., 1961: General considerations in the analysis of spectra. Technometrics, 3, 2, 133 -166.
Nicholls, N., 1984: Predictability of interannual variations of Australian seasonal tropical cyclone activity. Mon. Wea, Rev., 113, 1144 -1149.
Panofski, H. A. and G. W. Brier, 1958: Some Applications of statistics to Meteorology, Pennsylvania State University, 224 pp.
Shapiro, L. 1982: Hurricane climate fluctuations, Part II, Relation to large scale circulation. Mon. Wea, Rev., 110, 1014 -1023.
Singh, O. P. and R. K. Rout, 1999: Frequency of cyclonic disturbances over the North Indian Ocean during ENSO years. Proceeding of TROPMET-99, Chennai (To appear).




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