Role of Fresh Water Discharge from Rivers on Oceanic Features in the Northwestern Bay of Bengal

Abstract

The circulation of northwestern Bay of Bengal is modeled using a three-dimensional Princeton Ocean Model (POM). Orthogonal curvilinear grid is used to get a higher resolution along the coastal boundaries. Numerical simulations on climatological scale for premonsoon were compared with those with and without fresh water during monsoon season.

The simulations for monsoon season without freshwater discharge at head Bay show intensification of the premonsoon features. The presence of lower SSTs and higher sea surface salinities as compared to premonsoon season along the coast substantiate this observation. The pole-ward moving East Indian Coastal Current (EICC) extends along-shore up to 20.5°N. Simulations with freshwater discharge for Monsoon season indicate that freshwater plume constitutes an equator-ward moving EICC branch opposing the pole-ward moving branch. The freshwater discharge modifies sea surface elevations along the northwestern coastal Bay of Bengal, in turn suppressing the coastal upwelling. Absence of freshwater plume imparts a significant change in the oceanic features in north western parts of Bay of Bengal.

Keywords:

• Bay of Bengal
• upwelling
• fresh water discharge
• sea surface elevation
• numerical modeling

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their unbiased comments which resulted in a fruitful discussion and brought clarity to the article.