A 20-YEAR SATELLITE CLIMATOLOGY OF OCEAN CIRCULATION IN THE NORTHERN INDIAN OCEAN

摘要

Previous studies have shown that Downwelling Kelvin Waves can propagate from the Equator to the west coast of India, while Upwelling Kelvin Waves propagate only to the Bay of Bengal (BoB). Modeling experiments suggest that winds along India’s east coast force upwelling along India’s SW coast. Here we correlate upwelling and downwelling sea level anomalies (SLA) along India’s southwest coast to alongshore winds along the wave guide connecting western India to the equator. During Downwelling, high SLA’s along the SW coast of India are correlated with winds from India’s southern tip to its northeast coast. During Upwelling, low SLA’s along the southwest coast are only correlated with winds in a smaller, more local domain. Lagged SLA correlations support the hypothesis that upwelling first appears at the eastern tip of Sri-Lanka and slowly progresses west and northward along the west coast of India.