The structure of the southwest monsoon winds over the Arabian Sea during the late Quaternary: Observations, simulations, and marine geologic evidence

1992 ◽  
Vol 97 (C10) ◽  
pp. 15481 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Anderson ◽  
Warren L. Prell
Keyword(s):  
Arabian Sea ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Southwest Monsoon ◽  
Monsoon Winds

The Response of the Surface Circulation of the Arabian Sea to Monsoonal Forcing

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (9) ◽  
pp. 2008-2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. Beal ◽  
V. Hormann ◽  
R. Lumpkin ◽  
G. R. Foltz
Keyword(s):  
Arabian Sea ◽  
Southwest Monsoon ◽  
Western Boundary ◽  
Coastal Current ◽  
Ekman Pumping ◽  
East African ◽  
Wind Stress Curl ◽  
Surface Circulation ◽  
Monsoon Winds ◽  
Counter Current

Abstract Two decades of drifter and satellite data allow the authors to describe the seasonal evolution of the surface circulation of the Arabian Sea, which reverses annually with the Indian monsoon winds. This study finds several features that advance current understanding. Most significantly, northward flow appears along the length of the western boundary, together with a weak anticyclone at 6°N (a precursor to the Great Whirl) as early as March or April, one or two months before the southwest monsoon winds. This circulation is driven by planetary waves, which are initiated by wind curl forcing during the previous southwest monsoon, leading the authors to speculate that there is an oceanic mechanism through which one monsoon may precondition the next. Second, the authors find that the eastward South Equatorial Counter Current (SECC) is present year-round, fed by the northward East African Coastal Current (EACC). During the southwest monsoon the EACC overshoots the equator and splits, feeding both northward into the Somali Current and eastward into the SECC by looping back across the equator. This retroflection of the EACC is what was previously known as the southern gyre. At the surface, this circulation is obscured by strong, locally wind-driven, cross-equatorial transport. The semiannual variability of the SECC is governed by Ekman pumping over the equatorial gyre. Finally, there is broad, strong eastward flow at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden throughout the southwest monsoon, coincident with alongshore winds and a switch in sign of the wind stress curl along the axis of the atmospheric monsoon jet.

scholarly journals The phytoplankton bloom in the northwestern Arabian Sea during the southwest monsoon of 1979

1991 ◽  
Vol 96 (C11) ◽  
pp. 20623 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Brock ◽  
Charles R. McClain ◽  
Mark E. Luther ◽  
William W. Hay
Keyword(s):  
Arabian Sea ◽  
Phytoplankton Bloom ◽  
Southwest Monsoon

A southwest monsoon hydrographic climatology for the northwestern Arabian Sea

1992 ◽  
Vol 97 (C6) ◽  
pp. 9455 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Brock ◽  
Charles R. McClain ◽  
W. W. Hay
Keyword(s):  
Arabian Sea ◽  
Southwest Monsoon
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