A Mysterious New Breed of Tropical Cyclone Has Just Been Identified
Story by Carly Cassella • Yesterday 11:37 PM
For something as chaotic as the wind, meteorologists tend to have a pretty good grip on the kinds of circulating air patterns we might expect to see whipping up storms around the globe.
One, it seems, has until now slipped under the radar. In an effort to better understand contrasts in ocean temperature in the Indian Ocean, scientists have uncovered a new kind of tropical cyclone that occurs several times a year off the coast of Sumatra.
The unique, short-lived storms occur on a cyclical basis in the southeastern Indian Ocean. They tend to start swirling in winter and spring (in the Southern Hemisphere), when westerly equatorial winds meet north-westerly winds.
Researchers are fairly familiar with the sloshing about of large volumes of air close to the westerly equatorial winds through the summer months, specifically known as the Boreal Summer Intra-Seasonal Oscillation.
But the periodicity of these oscillations didn't quite match the storms' patterns, inviting scientists to dig further.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/a-mysterious-new-breed-of-tropical-cyclone-has-just-been-identified/ar-AA14LpaQ?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=3145ad96d63f4a5df3d76a2f9fb66032
