Oceanography The Official Magazine of
The Oceanography Society
Volume 29 Issue 02

View Issue TOC
Volume 29, No. 2
Pages 242 - 253

OpenAccess

Technological Advancements in Observing the Upper Ocean in the Bay of Bengal: Education and Capacity Building

By Amit Tandon , Eric A. D’Asaro, Kathleen M. Stafford , Debasis Sengupta , M. Ravichandran , Mark Baumgartner, R. Venkatesan , and Theresa Paluszkiewicz 
Jump to
Article Abstract Citation References Copyright & Usage
Article Abstract

Because the monsoon strongly affects India, there is a clear need for indigenous expertise in advancing the science that underlies monsoon prediction. The safety of marine transport in the tropics relies on accurate atmospheric and ocean environment predictions on weekly and longer time scales in the Indian Ocean. This need to better forecast the monsoon motivates the United States to advance basic research and support training of early career US scientists in tropical oceanography. Earlier Indian field campaigns and modeling studies indicated that an improved understanding of the interactions between the upper ocean and the atmosphere in the Bay of Bengal at finer spatial and temporal scales could lead to improved intraseasonal monsoon forecasts. The joint US Air-Sea Interactions Regional Initiative (ASIRI) and the Indian Ocean Mixing and Monsoon (OMM) program studied these interactions, resulting in scientific advances described by articles in this special issue of Oceanography. In addition to these scientific advances, and while also developing long-lasting collaborations and building indigenous Indian capability, a key component of these programs is training early career scientists from India and the United States. Training has been focusing on fine-scale and mixing studies of the upper ocean, air-sea interactions, and marine mammal research. Advanced methods in instrumentation, autonomous robotic platforms, experimental design, data analysis, and modeling have been emphasized. Students and scientists from India and the United States at all levels have been participating in joint cruises on Indian and US research vessels and in training participants in modern tools and methods at summer schools, at focused research workshops, and during research visits. Such activities are building new indigenous capability in India, training a new cadre of US scientists well versed in monsoon air-sea interaction, and forging strong links between Indian and US oceanographic institutions. 

Citation

Tandon, A., E.A. D’Asaro, K.M. Stafford, D. Sengupta, M. Ravichandran, M. Baumgartner, R. Venkatesan, and T. Paluszkiewicz. 2016. Technological advancements in observing the upper ocean in the Bay of Bengal: Education and capacity building. Oceanography 29(2):242–253, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2016.56.

References
    Bhat, G.S., S. Gadgil, P.V. Hareesh Kumar, S.R. Kalsi, P. Madhusoodanan, V.S.N. Murty, C.V.K. Prasada Rao, V. Ramesh Babu, L.V.G. Rao, R.R. Rao, and others. 2001. BOBMEX: The Bay of Bengal monsoon experiment. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 82:2,217–2,244, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(2001)082​<2217:BTBOBM>2.3.CO;2.
  1. Chaitanya, A.V.S., M. Lengaigne, J. Vialard, V.V. Gopalakrishna, F. Durand, C. Kranthikumar, S. Amritash, V. Suneel, F. Papa, and M. Ravichandran. 2014. Salinity measurements collected by fishermen reveal a “river in the sea” flowing along the eastern coast of India. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 95:1,897­–1,908, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00243.1
  2. Chowdary, J.S., G. Srinivas, T.S. Fousiya, A. Parekh, C. Gnanaseelan, H. Seo, and J.A. MacKinnon. 2016. Representation of Bay of Bengal upper-ocean salinity in general circulation models. Oceanography 29(2):38–49, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2016.37.
  3. Fousiya, T.S., A. Parekh, and C. Gnanaseelan. 2015. Interannual variability of upper ocean stratification in Bay of Bengal: Observational and modeling aspects. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 1–17, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1574-z.
  4. Gangopadhyay, A., G.N. Bharat Raj, A.H. Chaudhuri, M.T. Babu, and D. Sengupta. 2013. On the nature of meandering of the springtime western boundary current in the Bay of Bengal. Geophysical Research Letters 40:2,188–2,193, https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50412.
  5. Harenduprakash, L., and A.K. Mitra, 1988. Vertical turbulent mass flux below the sea surface and air-sea interaction: Monsoon region of the Indian Ocean. Deep Sea Research Part A 35:333–346, https://doi.org/10.1016/0198-0149(88)90014-3.
  6. Jayaraman, K.S. 2007. Oceanography: Steaming ahead. Nature 448:642–643, https://doi.org/​10.1038/448642a.
  7. Mahadevan, A., G. Spiro Jaeger, M. Freilich, M. Omand, E.L. Shroyer, and D. Sengupta. 2016. Freshwater in the Bay of Bengal: Its fate and role in air-sea heat exchange. Oceanography 29(2):72–81, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2016.40.
  8. 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 90:459–480, https://doi.org/10.1175/2008BAMS2608.1.
  9. Mukherjee, A., D. Shankar, V. Fernando, P. Amol, S.G. Aparna, R. Fernandes, G.S. Michael, S.T. Khalap, N.P. Satelkar, Y. Agarvadekar, and others. 2014. Observed seasonal and intraseasonal variability of the East India Coastal Current on the continental slope. Journal of Earth System Science 123:1,197–1,232, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-014-0471-7.
  10. Murty, V.S.N., Y. Sarma, D. Rao, and C. Murty. 1992. Water characteristics, mixing and circulation in the Bay of Bengal during southwest monsoon. Journal of Marine Research 50:207–228, https://doi.org/​10.1357/002224092784797700
  11. Murty, V.S.N., M.S.S. Sarma, A. Suryanarayana, D. Sengupta, A.S. Unnikrishnan, V. Fernando, A. Almeida, S. Khalap, A. Sardar, K. Somasundar, and M. Ravichandran. 2006. Indian moorings: Deep-sea current meter moorings in the Eastern Equatorial Indian Ocean. CLIVAR Exchanges 11(4):5-8.
  12. Rao, P.S., and D.R. Sikka. 2005. Intraseasonal variability of the summer monsoon over the North Indian Ocean as revealed by the BOBMEX and ARMEX field programs. Pure and Applied Geophysics 162:1,481–1,510, https://doi.org/​10.1007/s00024-005-2680-0.
  13. Ravichandran, M., D. Behringer, S. Sivareddy, M.S. Girishkumar, Neethu Chacko, and R. Harikumar. 2013. Evaluation of the global ocean data assimilation system at INCOIS: The tropical Indian Ocean. Ocean Modelling 69:123–135, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2013.05.003.
  14. Riser, S.C., H.J. Freeland, D. Roemmich, S. Wijffels, A. Troisi, M. Belbéoch, D. Gilbert, J. Xu, S. Pouliquen, A. Thresher, and others. 2016. Fifteen years of ocean observations with the global Argo array. Nature Climate Change 6:145–153, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2872.
  15. Sanilkumar, K.V., N. Mohankumar, M.X. Joseph, and R.R. Rao. 1994. Genesis of meteorological disturbances and thermohaline variability of the upper layers in the head of the Bay of Bengal during MONsoon Trough Boundary Layer EXperiment (MONTBLEX-90). Deep Sea Research Part I 41(10):1,569–1,581, https://doi.org/10.1016/0967-0637(94)90061-2.
  16. Sarma, V.V.S.S., G.D. Rao, R. Viswanadham, C.K. Sherin, J. Salisbury, M.M. Omand, A. Mahadevan, V.S.N. Murty, E.L. Shroyer, M. Baumgartner, and K.M. Stafford. 2016. Effects of freshwater stratification on nutrients, dissolved oxygen, and phytoplankton in the Bay of Bengal. Oceanography 29(2):222–231, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2016.54.
  17. Sengupta, D., R. Senan, V.S.N. Murty, and V. Fernando. 2004. A biweekly mode in the equatorial Indian Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research 109, C10003, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JC002329.
  18. Shetye, S.R., A.D. Gouveia, D. Shankar, S.S.C. Shenot, P.N. Vinayachandran, D. Sundar, G.S. Michael, and G. Nampoothiri. 1996. Hydrography and circulation in the western Bay of Bengal during the northeast monsoon. Journal of Geophysical Research 101:14,011–14,025, https://doi.org/​10.1029/95JC03307.
  19. Venkatesan, R., V.R. Shamji, G. Latha, Simi Mathew, R.R. Rao, Arul Muthiah, and M.A. Atmanand. 2013. In situ ocean subsurface time-series measurements from OMNI buoy network in the Bay of Bengal. Current Science 104:1,166–1,177.
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.