Analysis of chlorophyll-a, sea surface temperature, and sea surface salinity in the Bay of Bengal

Abstract

The waters of the Bay of Bengal (BoB) are influenced by the northeast monsoon (November-February) and the southwest monsoon (June-September). This study aims to determine the relationship between sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS), and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) during January 2021 in the BoB. The method used in this study is the method of correlation analysis, hypothesis testing, and analysis of variance using monthly average data for January 2021. The data comes from the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) portal. Our analysis showed that high Chl-a was inversely related to low SST and SSS conditions and vice versa. This finding confirms the results of other previous studies. Medium and negative correlations occurred for the Chl-a - SST and Chl-a - SSS pairs. Meanwhile, the SST- SSS pair shows a strong and positive correlation. The hypothesis test shows that the conclusions drawn from these correlation relationships are acceptable. Furthermore, from the analysis of variance obtained, it was found that Chl-a had a significant effect on variations in SST and SSS, while SST had a significant effect on variations in SSS.