Investigating the role of air-sea forcing on the variability of hydrography, circulation, and mixed layer depth in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal

Abstract

Summary An effort is made to understand and quantify the influence of near surface zonal and meridional winds, incoming shortwave radiation, and freshwater flux air-sea forcings on the seasonal variability of the hydrography, circulation, and mixed layer depth of the Arabian Sea (AS) and Bay of Bengal (BoB). Sensitivity experiments using an ocean general circulation model are carried out for this purpose in the Indian ocean around 65°–95°E, 5°–22°N during 1998–2014 (17 years). In the absence of near surface wind forcing, the sea surface temperature of the region greatly increases in all the seasons, whereas, in the absence of incoming shortwave radiation forcing, exactly opposite is the case. The sea surface salinity of the AS and BoB decreases in the absence of wind and shortwave radiation forcings, whereas, in the northern BoB it increases in the absence of freshwater flux forcing. The sub-surface changes in the stratification of temperature and salinity are also investigated. The influence of the air-sea forcings on the mixed layer depth of the region is found to be highly seasonally dependent. The effect of air-sea forcings on the seasonal variability of the upper ocean vertical stability is studied using the vertical shear of the horizontal velocity, buoyancy frequency, and energy required for mixing as quantifiers. The near surface wind forcing has highest contribution in changing the surface circulation of the region.