Study of Air-Sea interaction Processes over the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal Using Satellite Data

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to study the latitudinal and seasonal variation of latent heat fluxes (LHF) and associated atmospheric and oceanic parameters over the Arabian Sea (AS) and the Bay of Bengal (BB) for the year 1988. A significant latitudinal variation is observed in LHF for most of the months over the AS and the BB, while other oceanic and atmospheric parameters are characterized by a strong latitudinal variation in nonmonsoon months. Seasonal variations in LHF are more significant at higher latitudes compared to lower latitudes over the AS and the BB. The effect of coastal upwelling near the Somali coast decreases LHF, while surface winds near the Indian coast during monsoon months increases LHF. A comparative study over the AS and the BB demonstrates higher PW and SST over the BB than over the AS. LHF is found to be greater over the AS than over the BB for nonmonsoon months. Correlation analysis indicates that LHF is found to be highly correlated with DQ (difference between the humidity at the surface and humidity near the surface) over the AS and weakly correlated over the BB during nonmonsoon months. Throughout the year, DQ is found to bemore » a dominant factor for LHF over the AS. However, WS exercised better control over the BB in generating LHF. SST and PW are found to be highly correlated with each other over the AS (r = 0.87) and the BB (r = 0.75) for nonmonsoon months. The correlation becomes weakly negative over the AS (r = 0.15) and weak over the BB (r = 0.26) during monsoon months. Precipitable water is found to have a high correlation with WS over the AS (r = 0.72). This unique feature is revealed by SSM/I data and has not been reported earlier due to paucity of data over this region.« less