A High-Resolution Air-Sea Synoptic Observation Dataset from Drifting Buoys in the Bay of Bengal

Abstract. Mass and heat exchanges at the air-sea interface fundamentally drive global weather and climate systems. However, acquiring long-term, high-frequency, synchronous in-situ observations of both atmosphere and oceanic variables remains highly challenging, especially during extreme weather. This paper presents a high-resolution dataset from five air-sea drifting buoys deployed in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) in 2020 and 2022. These buoys captured precise, synchronous measurements of key meteorological parameters (air temperature, sea-level pressure, wind speed and direction, and relative humidity) alongside sea surface temperature. The dataset is typically sampled hourly; however, the sampling was increased to 5-minute intervals during tropical cyclones Nivar, Burevi, Four and Asani. This high-frequency dataset offers invaluable in-situ records for studying diurnal variations and fine-scale processes in the BoB. Furthermore, it provides critical observational data to advance our understanding of air-sea coupling, validate high-frequency satellite products, and improve parameterizations in regional numerical weather prediction models under extreme conditions.