Examination of interannual variability of sea surface temperature in the Indian Ocean using the physical decomposition method
Journal Title: Satellite Oceanography and Meteorology - Year 2017, Vol 2, Issue 1
Abstract
The physical decomposition method suggested by Qian (2012) is used to examine the interannual variability of sea surface temperature (SST) and anomaly (SSTA) in the Indian Ocean (IO) for the period 1945−2003. The monthly mean SSTs taken from the global ocean reanalysis produced by the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) are decomposed into four terms. The first term is the zonally averaged monthly climatological SST ([ ( )]) Tt ϕ , which features relatively warm surface waters in the tropical IO and relatively colder surface waters over the southern IO. This term also has a relatively low SST pool between the Equator and 20°N. The SST at the center of the pool in summer is about 1−2°C lower than in spring and autumn. The second term is the spatially-varying monthly climatological SSTA * ( ( , )) Tt λ ϕ , due mainly to the topographic effect and seasonal variation in wind forcing. The values of * (,) Tt λ ϕ are negative over the western coastal waters and positive over the eastern coastal and shelf waters in the tropical and northern IO. The third term is the zonally-averaged transient SSTA ([ ( , ) ] ) T t ϕ Y ′ . The largest values of [ ( , )] T t ϕ Y ′ occur over the subtropical and mid-latitudes of the IO, which differs from the SSTA in the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean. Time series of zonally and meridionally averaged ( ,) T t ϕ Y′ in the tropical-subtropical IO is strongly correlated with the Indian Ocean basin-wide (IOBW) mode. The fourth term is the spatially-varying transient SSTA * ( ( , ,) ) T t λ ϕ Y′ . The REOF analysis of the fourth term demonstrates that the first REOF is correlated strongly with the South Indian Ocean Dipole (SIOD) mode. The second REOF is correlated strongly with the equatorial Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) mode. The third REOF is highly correlated with the tropical IOBW mode.
Authors and Affiliations
Xingrong Chen, Yi Cai and Fangli Qiao
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP678938
- DOI -
- Views 196
- Downloads 0
Impacts of model resolution on simulation of mesoscale eddies in the Northeast Pacific Ocean
The model simulated meso-scale eddies in the Northeast Pacific Ocean, using two models with nominal horizontal resolutions of 1/12° and 1/36° in latitude/longitude (grid spacing of 7.5 km and 2.5 km), respectively, are p...
Seagrass distribution changes in Swan Lake of Shandong Peninsula from 1979 to 2009 inferred from satellite remote sensing data
Seagrass and associated bio-resources are very important for swan’s overwintering in Swan Lake in Rongcheng of Shandong Peninsula of China. The seagrass distribution changes, which are usually affected by the regional hu...
Coupled data assimilation in climate research: A brief review of applications in ocean and land
Regions of the cryosphere, including the poles, that are currently unmonitored are expanding, therefore increasing the importance of satellite observations for such regions. With the increasing availability of satellite...
Remote sensing application in monitoring change of river and coastlines of Morong, Bataan, Philippines
Remote sensing offers fast, cheap and reliable method in detecting river and coastal changes. In this study, satellite imageries of Morong river and coastlines from 2006 to 2016 were collected and analyzed to monitor cha...
Application of multi-window maximum cross-correlation to the mediterranean sea circulation by using MODIS data
In a previous study an improved Maximum Cross-Correlation technique, called Multi-Window Maximum Cross-Correlation (MW-MCC), was proposed, and applied to noise-free synthetic images in order to show its potential and lim...