Seasonal variability of near-surface isothermal layer and thermocline characteristics of the Tropical Indian Ocean

Abstract

A subset of world ocean monthly mean temperature climatology generated by Levitus and Boyer (1994), is utilised to describe the observed seasonal variability of the characteristics of the near-surface isothermal layer and thermocline for the entire tropical Indian Ocean (TIO). The most salient features of the observed annual cycle are described in terms of amplitude and phase of the annual and semi-annual frequencies employing Fourier analysis technique. On the annual mode, the near-surface isothermal layer depth (ILD), exhibits larger variability away from the equator with peak values in the northernmost Arabian Sea, the northernmost Bay of Bengal and the southern TIO, while on the semi-annual mode, it shows larger variability in the central Arabian Sea. The variability of the near-surface isothermal layer temperature (ILT), on the annual mode, is very weak in the warmpool region, and increases with latitude, while on the semi-annual mode, it shows larger variability in the northwestern Arabian Sea. The variability of 20°C isotherm topography (D20), on the annual mode, is weakest in the equatorial region and largest in the coastal regions of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal and in the southern T10, while on the semi-annual mode, it is prominent in the eastern and western equatorial regions. The thermocline gradient (TG) is very sharp below the warmpool region and diffuses meridionally. On the annual mode, it shows larger variability in the southern TIO, off Somalia and northernmost Arabian Sea, while on the semiannual mode, it shows larger variability in the southwestern Arabian Sea and eastern equatorial Indian Ocean. The relationship between near-surface isothermal layer and thermocline characteristics over an annual cycle are explored through correlation analysis. The correlation between ILD and ILT is strong over much of the basin with the exception of the equatorial and coastal upwelling/downwelling zones where internal ocean dynamics are important. In the southern TIO, entrainment of colder waters appears to be important in maintaining the annual cycle of ILT as strong correlation is noticed between ILT and TG. In the Indo-Pacific throughflow region and another region west of it, the annual Rossby waves appear to control D20, as correlations between D20 and other fields are strong in these regions. A similar strong correlation between D20 and ILD is also noticed in the southeastern Arabian Sea where mode-2 Rossby waves identified in numerical model solutions.