214
Views
6
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Seasonal and Monthly Variation of Vertical Structure of Temperature, Salinity and Heat Flux of the Bay of Bengal

, , &
Pages 76-99 | Received 27 Jul 2009, Accepted 16 Nov 2009, Published online: 26 Feb 2010
 

Abstract

Seasonal and monthly variations of heat flux have been investigated in this study using the Modular Ocean Model of version 3 (MOM 3) simulations and 52 years Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) products. These variations of the heat flux in different boxes of the Bay of Bengal (BOB) in different depths show the different behavior of the boxes. It is seen that the model and SODA results are comparable. The basin shows north-south variation in the surface from winter to spring whereas there is east-west variation in the mixed layer throughout the year except winter. The remote effect caused by warm water penetration from Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Malacca and coastal Kelvin waves keeps the basin warm most of the year. This article addresses the mechanisms of the seasonal variation of the vertical structure of the temperature and heat flux components.

Acknowledgements

The first author gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to complete the work. This study is also supported by the INDOMOD research project (POM, RP2007) of INCOIS under the Ministry of Earth, Government of India, and OCEANSAT-II utilization project (BBC, RP2008) of SAC, ISRO. The discussions with Prof. Avijit Gangopadhyay of UMSSD, USA, are greatly acknowledged. We are grateful to core group members of GrADS software, which is freely available on the Internet. We are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve this manuscript.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.