Effect of River Discharge on Bay of Bengal Circulation

Abstract

The seasonal circulation and mixed layer depths in Bay of Bengal is modeled using the three-dimensional Princeton Ocean Model (POM). Along the coastal boundaries a higher resolution is accomplished using the curvilinear orthogonal grid. Model uses a free-surface and terrain following sigma coordinates. The initial climatological salinity and temperature fields for the model are derived from the World Ocean Atlas-2001(WOA01). The Model is forced with wind stress derived from COADS wind climatology. Bilinear interpolation is used to obtain the initial fields and wind stress to the required model specification. Using the seasonal fields and wind stress the model is integrated for simulating Bay of Bengal circulation. The numerical simulations on climatological scale for monsoon months were conducted to study the evolution of dynamics. The simulations bring out not only the typical characteristic features of fresh water plume along the coast but also intensification of the flow over the monsoon period. The increase in the fresh water flow found to affect only the western parts of the BoB. The opposing currents due to monsoon winds and southward flowing fresh water discharge (FWD) were also delineated. The model results show that the wind stress induced turbulence process is subdued in the presence of strong vertical salinity stratification due to the influence of FWD. The simulated mixed layer depths are in agreement with the reported analytical energy required for mixing values.