Oceanography The Official Magazine of
The Oceanography Society
Jump to
Article Abstract Citation Supplementary Materials References Copyright & Usage
Article Abstract

The Arabian Sea circulation is forced by strong monsoonal winds and is characterized by vigorous seasonally reversing currents, extreme differences in sea surface salinity, localized substantial upwelling, and widespread submesoscale thermohaline structures. Its complicated sea surface temperature patterns are important for the onset and evolution of the Asian monsoon. This article describes a program that aims to elucidate the role of upper-ocean processes and atmospheric feedbacks in setting the sea surface temperature properties of the region. The wide range of spatial and temporal scales and the difficulty of accessing much of the region with ships due to piracy motivated a novel approach based on state-of-the-art autonomous ocean sensors and platforms. The extensive data set that is being collected, combined with numerical models and remote sensing data, confirms the role of planetary waves in the reversal of the Somali Current system. These data also document the fast response of the upper equatorial ocean to monsoon winds through changes in temperature and salinity and the connectivity of the surface currents across the northern Indian Ocean. New observations of thermohaline interleaving structures and mixing in setting the surface temperature properties of the northern Arabian Sea are also discussed.

Citation

Centurioni, L.R., V. Hormann, L.D. Talley, I. Arzeno, L. Beal, M. Caruso, P. Conry, R. Echols, H.J.S. Fernando, S.N. Giddings, A. Gordon, H. Graber, R.R. Harcourt, S.R. Jayne, T.G. Jensen, C.M. Lee, P.F.J. Lermusiaux, P. L’Hegaret, A.J. Lucas, A. Mahadevan, J.L. McClean, G. Pawlak, L. Rainville, S.C. Riser, H. Seo, A.Y. Shcherbina, E. Skyllingstad, J. Sprintall, B. Subrahmanyam, E. Terrill, R.E. Todd, C. Trott, H.N. Ulloa, and H. Wang. 2017. Northern Arabian Sea Circulation-Autonomous Research (NASCar): A research initiative based on autonomous sensors. Oceanography 30(2):74–87, https://doi.org/​10.5670/oceanog.2017.224.

Supplementary Materials

YouTube video of coordinated drift during the NASCar experiment can be viewed at https://youtu.be/WveJDHalS3g.

References
    Beal, L.M., V. Hormann, R. Lumpkin, and G.R. Foltz. 2013. The response of the surface circulation of the Arabian Sea to monsoonal forcing. Journal of Physical Oceanography 43(9):2,008–2,022, https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-13-033.1.
  1. Bhat, G., and H.J. Fernando. 2016. Remotely driven anomalous sea-air heat flux over the North Indian Ocean during the summer monsoon season. Oceanography 29(2):232–241, https://doi.org/​10.5670/oceanog.2016.55.
  2. Centurioni, L., A. Horányi, C. Cardinali, E. Charpentier, and R. Lumpkin. 2017. A global ocean observing system for measuring sea level atmospheric pressure: Effects and impacts on numerical weather prediction. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 98(2):231–238, https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-d-15-00080.1.
  3. Cronin, M.F., and M.J. McPhaden. 2002. Barrier layer formation during westerly wind bursts. Journal of Geophysical Research 107(C12), 8020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JC001171.
  4. Davis, R.E. 1985. Drifter observations of coastal surface currents during CODE: The method and descriptive view. Journal of Geophysical Research 90(C3):4,741–4,755, https://doi.org/​10.1029/JC090iC03p04741.
  5. de Boyer Montégut, C., F. Durand, R. Bourdallé-Badie, and B. Blanke. 2014. Role of fronts in the formation of Arabian Sea barrier layers during summer monsoon. Ocean Dynamics 64(6):809–822, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-014-0716-7.
  6. Döös, K., J. Kjellsson, and B. Jönsso. 2013. TRACMASS: A Lagrangian trajectory model. Pp. 225–249 in Preventive Methods for Coastal Protection. T. Soomere and E. Quak, eds, Springer, Heidelberg.
  7. Eriksen, C.C., T.J. Osse, R.D. Light, T. Wen, T.W. Lehman, P.L. Sabin, J.W. Ballard, and A.M. Chiodi. 2001. Seaglider: A long-range autonomous underwater vehicle for oceanographic research. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering 26(4):424–436, https://doi.org/​10.1109/48.972073.
  8. Fer, I., A.K. Peterson, and J.E. Ullgren. 2014. Microstructure measurements from an underwater glider in the turbulent Faroe Bank Channel overflow. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 31:1,128–1,150, https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-13-00221.1.
  9. Findlater, J. 1969. A major low-level air current near the Indian Ocean during the northern summer. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 95(404):362–380, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.49709540409.
  10. Gordon, A.L., E.L. Shroyer, A. Mahadevan, D. Sengupta, and M. Freilich. 2016. Bay of Bengal: 2013 northeast monsoon upper-ocean circulation. Oceanography 29(2):82–91, https://doi.org/​10.5670/oceanog.2016.41.
  11. Haley, P.J., A. Agarwal, and P.F.J. Lermusiaux. 2015. Optimizing velocities and transports for complex coastal regions and archipelagos. Ocean Modelling 89:1–28, https://doi.org/10.1016/​j.ocemod.2015.02.005.
  12. Haley, P.J., and P.F.J. Lermusiaux. 2010. Multiscale two-way embedding schemes for free-surface primitive equations in the “Multidisciplinary Simulation, Estimation and Assimilation System.” Ocean Dynamics 60(6):1,497–1,537, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-010-0349-4.
  13. Hersbach, H. 2010. Comparison of C-band scatterometer CMOD5.N equivalent neutral winds with ECMWF. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 27(4):721–736, https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JTECHO698.1.
  14. Horstmann, J., and W. Koch. 2005. Measurement of ocean surface winds using synthetic aperture radars. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering 30(3):508–515, https://doi.org/10.1109/JOE.2005.857514.
  15. Izumo, T., C. de Boyer Montégut, J.-J. Luo, S.K. Behera, S. Masson, and T. Yamagata. 2008. The role of the western Arabian Sea upwelling in Indian monsoon rainfall variability. Journal of Climate 21(21):5,603–5,623, https://doi.org/​10.1175/2008jcli2158.1.
  16. Jayne, S.R., and N.M. Bogue. 2017. Air-deployable profiling floats. Oceanography 30(2):29–31, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2017.214.
  17. Jayne, S.R., D. Roemmich, N. Zilberman, S.C. Riser, K.S. Johnson, G.C. Johnson, and S.R. Piotrowicz. 2017. The Argo Program: Present and future. Oceanography 30(2):18–28, https://doi.org/​10.5670/oceanog.2017.213.
  18. Jensen, T.G., H.W. Wijesekera, E.S. Nyadjro, P.G. Thoppil, J.F. Shriver, K. Sandeep, and V. Pant. 2016. Modeling salinity exchanges between the equatorial Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Oceanography 29(2):92–101, https://doi.org/​10.5670/oceanog.2016.42.
  19. Laurindo, L.C., A.J. Mariano, and R. Lumpkin. 2017. An improved near-surface velocity climatology for the global ocean from drifter observations. Deep Sea Research Part I 124:73–92, https://doi.org/10.1016/​j.dsr.2017.04.009.
  20. Lee, C.M., B.H. Jones, K.H. Brink, and A.S. Fischer. 2000. The upper-ocean response to monsoonal forcing in the Arabian Sea: Seasonal and spatial variability. Deep Sea Research Part II 47(7–8):1,177–1,226, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0967-0645(99)00141-1.
  21. Lee, T., G. Lagerloef, M.M. Gierach, H.Y. Kao, S. Yueh, and K. Dohan. 2012. Aquarius reveals salinity structure of tropical instability waves. Geophysical Research Letters 39, L12610, https://doi.org/​10.1029/2012GL052232.
  22. Leetmaa, A. 1972. The response of the Somali Current to the southwest monsoon of 1970. Deep Sea Research and Oceanographic Abstracts 19:319–325, https://doi.org/10.1016/​0011-7471(72)90025-3.
  23. Lermusiaux, P.F.J. 2007. Adaptive modeling, adaptive data assimilation and adaptive sampling. Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena 230(1):172–196, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physd.2007.02.014.
  24. Lermusiaux, P.F.J., P.J. Haley Jr., S. Jana, A. Gupta, C.S. Kulkarni, C. Mirabito, W.H. Ali, D.N. Subramani, A. Dutt, J. Lin, and others. 2017. Optimal planning and sampling predictions for autonomous and Lagrangian platforms and sensors in the northern Arabian Sea. Oceanography 30(2):172–185, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2017.242.
  25. Lermusiaux, P.F.J., T. Lolla, P.J. Haley Jr., K. Yigit, M.P. Ueckermann, T. Sondergaard, and W.G. Leslie. 2016. Science of autonomy: Time-optimal path planning and adaptive sampling for swarms of ocean vehicles. Pp. 481–498 in Springer Handbook of Ocean Engineering. M.R. Dhanak and N.I. Xiros, eds, Springer International Publishing.
  26. Lighthill, M.J. 1969. Dynamic response of the Indian Ocean to onset of the southwest monsoon. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A 265(1159):45–92, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1969.0040.
  27. Lucas, A.J., J.D. Nash, R. Pinkel, J.A. MacKinnon, A. Tandon, A. Mahadevan, M.M. Omand, M. Freilich, D. Sengupta, and M. Ravichandran. 2016. Adrift upon a salinity-stratified sea: A view of upper-ocean processes in the Bay of Bengal during the southwest monsoon. Oceanography 29(2):134–145, https://doi.org/​10.5670/oceanog.2016.46.
  28. Lukas, R., and E. Lindstrom. 1991. The mixed layer of the western equatorial Pacific Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research 96(S01):3,343–3,357, https://doi.org/10.1029/90JC01951.
  29. McPhaden, M.J., G. Meyers, K. Ando, Y. Masumoto, V.S.N. Murty, M. Ravichandran, F. Syamsudin, J. Vialard, L. Yu, and W. Yu. 2009. RAMA: The Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 90(4):459–480, https://doi.org/10.1175/2008BAMS2608.1.
  30. Niiler, P.P. 2001. The world ocean surface circulation. Pp. 193–204 in Ocean Circulation and Climate. G. Siedler, J. Church and J. Gould, eds, Academic Press.
  31. Paris, C.B., J. Helgers, E. Van Sebille, and A. Srinivasan. 2013. Connectivity Modeling System: A probabilistic modeling tool for the multi-scale tracking of biotic and abiotic variability in the ocean. Environmental Modelling & Software 42:47–54, https://doi.org/10.1016/​j.envsoft.2012.12.006.
  32. Pinkel, R., M.A. Goldin, J.A. Smith, O.M. Sun, A.A. Aja, M.N. Bui, and T. Hughen. 2011. The Wirewalker: A vertically profiling instrument carrier powered by ocean waves. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 28:426–435, https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JTECHO805.1.
  33. Rao, R.R., and R. Sivakumar. 1999. On the possible mechanisms of the evolution of a mini-warm pool during the pre-summer monsoon season and the genesis of onset vortex in the South-Eastern Arabian Sea. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 125(555):787–809, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.49712555503.
  34. Rudnick, D.L. 2016. Ocean research enabled by underwater gliders. Annual Reviews of Marine Science 8:519–541, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-122414-033913.
  35. Rudnick, D.L., R.E. Davis, and J.T. Sherman. 2016. Spray underwater glider operations. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 33:1,113–1,122, https://doi.org/10.1175/jtech-d-15-0252.1.
  36. Schmidtko, S., G.C. Johnson, and J.M. Lyman. 2013. MIMOC: A global monthly isopycnal upper-ocean climatology with mixed layers. Journal of Geophysical Research 118(4):1,658–1,672, https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrc.20122.
  37. Schmitt, R.W. 1994. Double diffusion in oceanography. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 26(1):255–285, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.fl.26.010194.001351.
  38. Schott, F.A., and J.P. McCreary. 2001. The monsoon circulation of the Indian Ocean. Progress in Oceanography 51(1):1–123, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0079-6611(01)00083-0.
  39. Schott, F.A., S.-P. Xie, and J.P. McCreary Jr. 2009. Indian Ocean circulation and climate variability. Reviews of Geophysics 47(1), RG1002, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007rg000245.
  40. Seo, H. In press. Distinct influence of air-sea interactions mediated by mesoscale sea surface temperature and surface current in the Arabian Sea. Journal of Climate, https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-16-0834.1.
  41. Seo, H., A.J. Miller, and J.R. Norris. 2016. Eddy–wind interaction in the California Current System: Dynamics and impacts. Journal of Physical Oceanography 46(2):439–459, https://doi.org/​10.1175/JPO-D-15-0086.1.
  42. Seo, H., R. Murtugudde, M. Jochum, and A.J. Miller. 2008. Modeling of mesoscale coupled ocean-​atmosphere interaction and its feedback to ocean in the western Arabian Sea. Ocean Modelling 25:120–131, https://doi.org/10.1016/​j.ocemod.2008.07.003.
  43. Seo, H., A.C. Subramanian, A.J. Miller, and N.R. Cavanaugh. 2014. Coupled impacts of the diurnal cycle of sea surface temperature on the Madden–Julian oscillation. Journal of Climate 27(22):8,422–8,443, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00141.1.
  44. Shcherbina, A.Y., M.C. Gregg, M.H. Alford, and R.R. Harcourt. 2009. Characterizing thermohaline intrusions in the North Pacific Subtropical Frontal Zone. Journal of Physical Oceanography 39(11):2,735–2,756, https://doi.org/​10.1175/2009jpo4190.1.
  45. Shcherbina, A.Y., M.A. Sundemeyer, E. Kunze, E. D’Asaro, G. Badin, D. Birch, A.-M.E.G. Brunner-Suzuki, J. Callies, B.T. Kuebel Cervantes, M. Claret, and others. 2015. The LatMix summer campaign: Submesoscale stirring in the upper ocean. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 96(8):1,257–1,279, https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-d-14-00015.1.
  46. Sherman, J.T., R.E. Davis, W.B. Owens, and J. Valdes. 2001. The autonomous underwater glider “Spray.” IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering 26(4):437–446, http://doi.org/​10.1109/48.972076.
  47. Todd, R.E., D.L. Rudnick, J.T. Sherman, W.B. Owens, and L. George. 2017. Absolute velocity measurements from autonomous underwater gliders equipped with Doppler current profilers. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 34(2):309–333, https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-16-0156.1.
  48. Trott, C.B., B. Subrahmanyam, and V.S.N Murty. 2017. Variability of the Somali Current and eddies during the southwest monsoon regimes. Dynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans 79:43–55, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dynatmoce.2017.07.002.
  49. Vecchi, G.A., S.-P. Xie, and A.S. Fischer. 2004. Ocean–atmosphere covariability in the western Arabian Sea. Journal of Climate 17(6):1,213–1,224, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<1213:​ocitwa>2.0.co;2.
  50. Wang, Y., and M.J. McPhaden. 2017. Seasonal cycle of cross-equatorial flow in the central Indian Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research 122, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JC012537.
  51. Wijesekera, H.W., T.G. Jensen, E. Jarosz, W.J. Teague, E.J. Metzger, D.W. Wang, S.U.P. Jinadasa, K. Arulananthan, L.R. Centurioni, and H.J.S. Fernando. 2015. Southern Bay of Bengal currents and salinity intrusions during the northeast monsoon. Journal of Geophysical Research 120(10):6,897–6,913, https://doi.org/​10.1002/2015JC010744.
  52. Wolk, F., R. Lueck, and L.C. St. Laurent. 2009. Turbulence measurements from a glider. In OCEANS 2009, MTS/IEEE Biloxi - Marine Technology for Our Future: Global & Local Challenges. October 26–29, 2009, Biloxi, Mississippi.
  53. Wyrtki, K. 1973. An equatorial jet in the Indian Ocean. Science 181(4096):262–264, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.181.4096.262.
Copyright & Usage

This is an open access article made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format as long as users cite the materials appropriately, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate the changes that were made to the original content. Images, animations, videos, or other third-party material used in articles are included in the Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If the material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission directly from the license holder to reproduce the material.