Mar.19, 1998 Day No. 78            Ship Location: 10o55'S, 63o33'E

ITCZ shows some northward advance. There are a large number of mesoscale centers of convection in the ITCZ in the Indian region. FY-2 image shows that the tropical storm Fiona has moved west and further weakened and lay centered at 50 E, 05 S. The large cirrus flow band now extends from equator to beyond 40 N across the Bay of Bengal. Arabian Sea was mainly cloud free. Scattered cumulus and cirrus clouds were observed at the Ship Location. Kaashidhoo cloud image shows patches of cumulus and cirrus clouds. The boundary layer flow near the Ship Location is from north. At Kaashidhoo the flow is from NE.