Seasonal and inter-annual variability of surface circulation in the Bay of Bengal from TOPEX/Poseidon altimetry

Influence of El Niño and Indian Ocean Dipole on sea level variability in the Bay of Bengal

“…By September (Fig. 1b), due to the baroclinic instability and weakening of southwesterly winds the anticyclonic gyre diminishes to an eddy and the observed sea level pattern shows anticyclonic eddy embedded between two cyclonic eddies in the western BoB as shown by Gopalan et al (2000), Somayajulu et al (2003), Murukesh (2007). At the same time the second uKW is initiated in the eastern rim of BoB and radiates upwelling Rossby waves.…”

“…Usually mesoscale eddies are generated as meanders from currents and/or Kelvin waves due to instability, topographic effects, fresh water discharge, Rossby waves and wind forcing (Somayajulu et al, 2003;Murukesh, 2007). The first three factors are more vital for coastal eddy generation and the latter two are imperative for the generation and maintenance of open ocean mesoscale eddies.…”

“…The ocean gyres and eddies play a prominent role in circulation, heat transport, water mass formation, cyclogenesis and to some extent have biological and naval applications. Several studies have been carried out to understand the generation mechanisms of BoB eddies (Babu et al, 1991;Murty et al, 1993;Gopalan et al, 2000;Somayajulu et al, 2003) even though, the BoB eddies are often reported as chaotic and omnipresent (Murukesh, 2007). In this study, we show that the observed annual cycle of coastal Kelvin waves and their associated radiated Rossby waves play a prominent role in the evolution of the BoB mesoscale eddies.…”

An anomalous cooling event observed in the Bay of Bengal during June 2009

“…It is observed that the cooling spans up to a depth of 120 m (figure not shown) suggesting the role of entrainment in the event. Variability of the BoB processes is also associated with Rossby waves radiated by coastally trapped Kelvin waves Somayajulu et al 2002). Time-longitude plots of SSH anomalies along the central BoB is plotted in Fig.…”

Atmospheric forcing on chlorophyll concentration in the Mediterranean

“…SST has been employed numerous times in efforts to identify areas of elevated primary production such as fronts, gyres and upwelling (e.g. Su & Sheng, 1999;Demarcq & Faure, 2000;Shaw & Vennell, 2000;Somayajulu et al, 2003;Valavanis et al, 2004;Sokolov et al, 2006), because of the cold water signature of these features. SSH can be seen either as an indication of the thermocline depth or can be used to identify tidally-induced and large-scale ocean circulation features (currents, eddies) (Fu & Cazenave, 2000).…”