The warm pool in the Indian Ocean

Vinayachandran, PN and Shetye, SR (1991) The warm pool in the Indian Ocean. In: Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Science: Earth and Planetary Science, 100 (2). pp. 165-175.

Preview

PDF pool1.pdf Download (1MB)

Abstract

The structure of the warm pool (region with temperature greater than 28°C) in the equatorial Indian Ocean is examined and compared with its counterpart in the Pacific Ocean using the climatology of Levitus. Though the Pacific warm pool is larger and warmer, a peculiarity of the pool in the Indian Ocean is its seasonal variation. The surface area of the pool changes from $24\times10^6km^2$ in April to $8\times10^6km^2$ in September due to interaction with the southwest monsoon. The annual cycles of sea surface temperature at locations covered by the pool during at least a part of the year show the following modes: (i) a cycle with no significant variation (observed in the western equatorial Pacific and central and eastern equatorial Indian Ocean), (ii) a single maximum/minimum (northern and southern art of the Pacific warm pool and the south Indian Ocean), (iii) two maxima/minima (Arabian Sea, western equatorial Indian Ocean and southern Bay of Bengal), and (iv) a rapid rise, a steady phase and a rapid fall (northern Bay of Bengal).

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Science: Earth and Planetary Science
Publisher:	Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information:	Copyright of this Article belongs to Indian Academy of Sciences.
Keywords:	Warm pool;Equatorial Pacific Ocean;Equatorial Indian Ocean;Sea surface temperature;Annual cycle
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Centre for Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
Date Deposited:	13 Dec 2006
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:32
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/8711

Actions (login required)

View Item