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

An attempt has been made to study the marine boundary layer characteristics over Bay of Bengal using BOBMEX (Bay of Bengal and Monsoon Experiment) pil ot experiment data sets, which was conducted between 23rd October and 12th November 1998 on board ORV Sagar Kanya. A one-dimensional multilevel atmosp heric boundary layer with TKE-epsilon closure scheme is employed to study t he marine boundary layer characteristics. In this study two synoptic situat ions are chosen: one represents an active convection case and the other a s uppressed convection. In the present article the marine boundary layer char acteristics such as temporal evolution of turbulent kinetic energy, height of the boundary layer and the air-sea exchange processes such as sensible a nd latent heat fluxes, drag coefficient for momentum are simulated during b oth active and suppressed convection. Marine boundary layer height is estim ated from the vertical profiles of potential temperature using the stabilit y criterion. The model simulations are compared with the available observat ions.