The Brown Ocean Effect

  • Released Thursday, October 5, 2017
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Before Tropical Storm Bill made landfall over Texas, eastern Texas experienced several days of rain that began flooding areas to the south east and northern parts of the state. As Tropical Storm Bill moved northward through Texas it is hypothesized that it fed off the highly saturated ground (as if it were still over the ocean) and can be seen slightly intensifying (via winds) as it moved into Oklahoma and progressed to the northeast.

In several regions of the world, tropical cyclones have been known to maintain or increase strength after landfall without transitioning to extratropical systems. It is hypothesized that these inland areas help sustain tropical cyclones when there has been plentiful rainfall, leading to unusually wet soil and strong latent heat release. Additionally, given the symmetric structure of warm-core cyclones, the atmosphere should tend toward barotropic conditions that mimic an ocean environment. Observational and modeling studies support this "brown ocean" concept, providing a global climatology of inland tropical cyclones, pinpointing regions that are more favorable for re-intensification, and analyzing individual cyclones to better understand the associated land-atmosphere feedbacks.

Color bar for liquid precipitation rates (ie, rain rates). Shades of green represent low amounts of liquid precipitation, whereas shades of red represent high amounts of precipitation.

Color bar for liquid precipitation rates (ie, rain rates). Shades of green represent low amounts of liquid precipitation, whereas shades of red represent high amounts of precipitation.

Colorbar for soil moisture, where areas in red have little soil moisture and areas in blue are wet.

Colorbar for soil moisture, where areas in red have little soil moisture and areas in blue are wet.

Colorbar for accumulated precipitation beginning June 16, 2016.

Colorbar for accumulated precipitation beginning June 16, 2016.

Print resolution still of Tropical Storm Bill on June 17, 2015 showing winds, IMERG precipitation, cloud cover, and soil moisture.

Print resolution still of Tropical Storm Bill on June 17, 2015 showing winds, IMERG precipitation, cloud cover, and soil moisture.

Print resolution image of Tropical Storm Bill on June 17, 2015 showing winds, accumulated precipitation (beginning on June 16, 2015 when it made landfall), and cloud cover.

Print resolution image of Tropical Storm Bill on June 17, 2015 showing winds, accumulated precipitation (beginning on June 16, 2015 when it made landfall), and cloud cover.

Print resolution still showing the accumulated precipitation from Tropical Storm Bill from the time it made landfall on June 16, 2015 until June 19, 2015.

Print resolution still showing the accumulated precipitation from Tropical Storm Bill from the time it made landfall on June 16, 2015 until June 19, 2015.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Thursday, October 5, 2017.
This page was last updated on Sunday, January 5, 2025 at 11:22 PM EST.

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Datasets used

  • CPC (Climate Prediction Center) Cloud Composite

    ID: 600
    Type: Data Compilation Collected by: Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Dates used: 6/10/2015 - 6/19/2015

    Global cloud cover from multiple satellites

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  • IMERG

    ID: 863
    Type: Data Compilation Collected by: NASA/GSFC Dates used: 6/10/2015 - 6/19/2015

    This dataset can be found at: http://pmm.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/document_files/IMERG_ATBD_V4.4.pdf

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  • NASA-USDA-FAS Soil Moisture (Surface Soil Moisture corrected with SMOS imagery and assimilated by the Ensemble Kalman Filter)

    ID: 954
    Type: Data Compilation Collected by: NASA and USDA Dates used: 6/10/2015 - 6/19/2015

    The surface soil moisture product is corrected by integrating satellite-derived Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission surface soil moisture retrievals into the modified Palmer two-layer soil moisture model. The SMOS imagery helps to correct the modified Pal

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  • Winds [MERRA-2]

    ID: 959
    Type: Model Dates used: 6/10/2015 - 6/19/2015
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