Coastal Upwelling Activity along the southwest coast of India

Abstract

High primary productivity along the southwest coast of India is usually related to coastal upwelling activity that injects nutrients into the euphotic zone in response to prevailing longshore winds (from northwest to north). The upwelling process has maximum intensity from June to September, with the coastal upwelling index varying from 20 to 260 m3/s per 100 m of coastline. Along the entire coast of peninsula, the upwelling intensity changes in accordance with local wind conditions and bottom topography. I have identified the seasonal and synoptic variability of upwelling signatures along the coast using monthly and weekly sea surface temperature (SST) distributions obtained from remote sensing imagery from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, Sea Winds from QuikSCAT and PFEL coastal upwelling indices in the period 1999–2003. seasonal features and latitudinal variability of the upwelling‐related processes along the coast have been described, using the coastal upwelling indices, calculating according to the PFEL methodology. It is confirmed that the upwelling intensity in the southern portion of the peninsula coast and remote sensing methods.