Mesoscale and Submesoscale Structures in the Arabian Sea using Sea Surface Height
Abstract
The Arabian Sea, and particularly the Somali Current region, experiences substantial eddy activity during the southwest monsoon season from June to September. To better understand the physical properties, development, and propagation of Arabian Sea eddies, we spatially and temporally analyze satellite-derived sea surface height (SSH) in conjunction with sea surface salinity (SSS), ocean color, and sea surface temperature (SST). Evaluation of the development and propagation of eddies in ocean color and SST detected by a closed-contour algorithm provides additional understanding of coastal eddy development in upwelling regions such as the Somali Current and coastal Arabian Peninsula. Tracking eddies via the closed-contour algorithm approach using SSS quantifies and traces the propagation of the seasonal westward intrusion of low-salinity waters from the Bay of Bengal via the southern tip of India and how it interacts with the high-salinity Arabian Sea waters. Particular emphasis in terms of radius, amplitude, eddy kinetic energy (EKE), propagation, and dissipation is given to the Great Whirl (GW). Improved understanding of the mesoscale and submesocale dynamics of the Arabian Sea region paves the way for the application of data collected at such a fine resolution ( 100 m) by the jointly developed NASA-CNES (in partnership with CSA and UKSA) Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, particularly in coastal regions where currently available merged multi-mission altimetric measurements suffer from biases due to coastal processes.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMOS53C1357T
- Keywords:
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- 1845 Limnology;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1856 River channels;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 4520 Eddies and mesoscale processes;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICALDE: 4544 Internal and inertial waves;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL