Abstract
A severe thunderstorm developed on May 18, 2017 over the Kochi (\(10.03^\circ \hbox {N}\), \(76.33^\circ \hbox {E}\)), a coastal region located in the southwest Peninsular India, with overshooting tops as high as 16 km. Observations made using stratosphere troposphere (ST) radar located at Kochi during May 17–19, 2017 show that strong convection reached the tropopause height during this event, and considerable mixing has happened. This paper describes the exchange between the stratosphere and troposphere during this thunderstorm event, a few days prior to the onset of Indian Summer Monsoon. The air near the vicinity of the tropopause was characterised by notably high concentrations of humidity and \(\mathrm {CO}\). A tongue of air with stratospheric characteristics lay below the tropopause, showing that extensive stratosphere–troposphere exchange had occurred. The effects of such a mechanism on atmospheric budgets of trace species in the stratosphere may alter the lower stratosphere’s chemistry. Detailed estimates of the fluxes are also presented in the paper.
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Data Availability
The data sets (both radars and reanalyses) analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Reanalysis data (MERRA-2) is publicly available: https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/reanalysis/MERRA-2/data_access/.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Science Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, for the support in establishing the 205 MHz ST radar at ACARR, CUSAT. The financial support provided by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India for the sustenance of the ST radar Facility is greatly acknowledged.
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Sujithlal, S.P., Satheesan, K., Kottayil, A. et al. Observation of stratosphere–troposphere exchange during a pre-monsoon thunderstorm activity over Kochi, India. Meteorol Atmos Phys 134, 53 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-022-00893-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-022-00893-7