[1] Satellite remote sensing provides diverse and useful ocean surface observations. It is of interest to determine if such surface observations can be used to infer information about the vertical structure of the ocean's interior, like that of temperature profiles. Earlier studies used either sea surface temperature or dynamic height/sea surface height to infer the subsurface temperature profiles. In this study we have used neural network approach to estimate the temperature structure from sea surface temperature, sea surface height, wind stress, net radiation, and net heat flux, available from an Arabian Sea mooring from October 1994 to October 1995, deployed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. On the average, 50% of the estimations are within an error of ±0.5°C and 90% within ±1.0°C. The average RMS error between the estimated temperature profiles and in situ observations is 0.584°C with a depthwise average correlation coefficient of 0.92.

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Predicting cyclone intensities in the Indian Ocean has been a challenging problem. Because of the highly varying bathymetry of the Indian coast, even a slight error in the prediction of landfall point and intensity can lead to a totally different storm surge height. Though capabilities of cyclone track prediction have significantly improved during recent years, cyclone intensity forecasts still need improvement. Various dynamical and statistical models have different rates of success for cyclone intensity prediction. In addition to atmospheric parameters and sea surface temperature (SST), another important parameter that enhances the understanding of the intensification of the cyclones is the upper ocean heat storage that is generally reflected in the oceanic eddies and dynamic topography. Sea surface height anomalies (SSHAs) from radar altimeters can provide information on this parameter. The relationship between the SSHAs and the associated hydrographic structure, particularly of eddies, is discussed by Ali et al. [1998], Gopalan et al. [2000], Babu et al. [2003], and Gopalakrishna et al. [2003]. Because of these changes in hydrographic features caused by SSHAs, warm (cold) core oceanic eddies have more (less) heat content compared with their surroundings.

During recent years, an increase in the intensity of pre-monsoon tropical cyclones (TCs) is observed over the Arabian Sea. This study suggests that this increase is due to epochal variability in the intensity of TCs and is associated with epochal variability in the stormambient vertical wind shear and tropical cyclone heat potential (TCHP). There is a significant increase (0.53 kJ cm −2 year −1 ) of TCHP during recent years. The warmer upper ocean helps TCs to sustain or increase their intensity by an uninterrupted supply of sensible and latent heat fluxes from the ocean surface to the atmosphere.