Development of a High-Resolution Multiscale Modeling and Prediction System for Bay of Bengal, Part I: Climatology-Based Simulations

Abstract

A high-resolution (10 km × 10 km) multiscale ocean modeling system was developed for short-term (1 - 2 weeks) ocean state hindcasting/forecasting in the Bay of Bengal (BOB) region. This paper is Part I of a two-part series of studies. The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) was implemented and initialized with Levitus 1/4° climatological fields for short-term forecasting. The results from these climatology-based model simulations for three representative months (February, June and October) in three different seasons (winter, summer and autumn) are discussed herein. This high-resolution model implementation simulates most of the observed dominant circulation features. The multiscale features during February include an anticyclonic basin-scalegyre with a strong western boundary current (WBC) in the western basin, the formation of several shallow mesoscale eddies in the head of the Bay and a cyclonic sub-basin-scale Myanmar Gyre in the northeast. During June, no well-defined boundary current is simulated along the Indian coast; instead, alternating cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies appear along the east coast with cross-basin eastward flow to support a deep cyclonic Andaman Gyre. In October, a basin-scale cyclonic gyre with a continuous well-defined East India Coastal Current (EICC), weak inflow from the Malacca Strait to the Andaman Sea and advection of BOB water into the Arabian Sea via the Palk Strait are simulated well by the model. A number of mesoscale eddies appear on the eastern half of the basin during October. Physical pattern of simulated eddies and transports across selected sections are validated against available drifter climatology, ARGO data and previous observations. Application of this system to synoptic short-term predictions for October 2008 will be presented in Part II.