Water characteristics, mixing and circulation in the Bay of Bengal during southwest monsoon

Abstract

Influence of the freshwater influx, the wind forcing and the Indian Ocean monsoon drift current on the property distributions and the circulation in the Bay of Bengal during southwest monsoon has been quantified. At the head of the Bay, waters of low salinity, affected by the freshwater influx, occupy the upper 90 m water column. The isohaline 34.0 × 10−3 separating these waters from those of underlying saline waters shoals southward gradually and outcrops around 14N, 10N and 6N in the western, central and southeastern regions of the Bay respectively. The wind-stress-curl-induced upwelling effect is confined to depth limits of 50–100 m as is supported by a band of cold (24°–19°C) water in the central Bay. In the southern and central regions of the Bay, the monsoon drift current feeds the large scale cyclonic gyre apart from maintaining the northward flowing boundary current in the eastern Bay. A warm (27°–23°C), saline (35.0–35.2 × 10−3) watermass is advected northeastward along with the monsoon drift current into the Bay up to 14N at the depth limits of 50–100 m. Below this depth, in the western Bay a well-defined southward flow in the form of a boundary current is documented. Intense vertical mixing is inferred at the zones of salinity fronts in the depth limits of 40–100 m and also at deeper depths (\u3e 2200 m) and elsewhere lateral mixing is predominant