A summer monsoon pump to keep the Bay of Bengal salty

Vinayachandran, PN and Shankar, D and Vernekar, Siddharth and Sandeep, KK and Amol, P and Neema, CP and Chatterjee, Abhisek (2013) A summer monsoon pump to keep the Bay of Bengal salty. In: Geophysical Research Letters, 40 (9). pp. 1777-1782.

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Abstract

The Bay of Bengal receives a large influx of freshwater from precipitation and river discharge. Outflow of excess freshwater and inflow of saltier water is required to prevent the bay from freshening. Relatively fresh water flows out of the bay along its boundaries and inflow of saltier water occurs via the Summer Monsoon Current (SMC), which flows eastward from the Arabian Sea into the bay. This saltier water, however, slides under the lighter surface water of the bay. Maintaining the salt balance of the bay therefore demands upward mixing of this saltier, subsurface water. Here, we show that an efficient mechanism for this mixing is provided by upward pumping of saltier water in several bursts during the summer monsoon along the meandering path of the SMC. Advection by currents can then take this saltier water into the rest of the basin, allowing the bay to stay salty despite a large net freshwater input.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher:	American Geophysical Union
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to American Geophysical Union.
Keywords:	Bay of Bengal; Salt Pumping; Salinity
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Centre for Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
Date Deposited:	31 Jul 2013 10:08
Last Modified:	31 Jul 2013 10:08
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/46914

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