Satellite Surveillance of Upwelling Along the East Coast of India

Abstract

Upwelling process is allied with the primary productivity along the east coast of India. Coastal upwelling index (CUI) varies from 10–150 m³/s/100m of coastline length and is at its maximum during March and August. Spectral analysis of the CUI shows that the frequency ranges from 0.1–0.2 cycles/day, exhibiting a number of significant energy peaks. The presence of energy frequency ranging from 0.1–0.2 cycles/day is clearly evident especially for the Visakhapatnam and Chennai locations. Seasonal and synoptic variability of upwelling signatures is identified using satellite sea surface temperature during 2000–2003.

Keywords:

• Coastal upwelling
• sea surface temperature (SST)
• AVHRR
• central east coast of India

Acknowledgements

The present research work is supported through funding received from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, under the Fast Track Young Scientist Project (SR/FTP/ES-09/2008), which is gratefully acknowledged. I thank the PFEL, NMFS-NOAA, for providing upwelling data, and NASA Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Centre at the Jet Population Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, for the sea winds (QuikSCAT) data. The author acknowledges anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments to improve this manuscript.