Bifurcation of the East India Coastal Current east of Sri Lanka

Vinayachandran, PN and Kagimoto, T and Masumoto, Y and Chauhan, P and Nayak, SR and Yamagata, T (2005) Bifurcation of the East India Coastal Current east of Sri Lanka. In: Geophysical Research Letters, 32 (15). L15606.

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Abstract

The East India Coastal Current (EICC) flows equatorward during October–December carrying low salinity water from the Bay of Bengal en route. Using results from a high resolution ocean general circulation model, satellite altimeter data, Argo float profiles and ocean color images we show that the EICC bifurcates east of Sri Lanka. One part continues along the coast of Sri Lanka but the major part of the EICC, called here as the East Sri Lanka Jet (ESLJ) flows eastward into the Bay of Bengal. As a result of this bifurcation, there is offshore transport of chlorophyll a rich low salinity water from the coast of Sri Lanka. Altimeter data from 1993–2004 show that the bifurcation occurred every year except during the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) years of 1994 and 1997. The bifurcation occurs when an anticyclonic eddy that propagates westward ahead of a downwelling Rossby wave front impinges on the Sri Lanka coast. This new finding suggests that the main route of the low salinity water from the Bay of Bengal into the southeastern Arabian Sea may not be along the coast around Sri Lanka but through the Winter Monsoon Current.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher:	American Geophysical Union
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to American Geophysical Union.
Keywords:	4223 Oceanography;General;Descriptive and regional oceanography;4255 Oceanography;General;Numerical modeling (0545, 0560);4512 Oceanography;Physical;Currents;4520 Oceanography;Physical;Eddies and mesoscale processes;4528 Oceanography;Physical;Fronts and jets
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Centre for Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
Date Deposited:	30 Apr 2007
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:37
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/10773

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