Space time variability of near surface salinity in the Bay of Bengal

Abstract

Freshwater from monsoon rain and rivers leads to a 5-10 m deep low-salinity layer in the north Bay of Bengal from August to February. The thin fresh layer, with strong stratification at its base, is highly responsive to air-sea momentum and heat flux. Moored observations at 18N, about 500 km away from major river mouths, show a 3-8 psu drop in surface salinity within a week as water from the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river arrives at the mooring in late August-early September each year, and from the Irrawady river in November-December. In conjunction with satellite sea surface salinity (SSS) and surface currents, the moored observations indicate that dispersal of river water in the open ocean is mainly driven by the flow in mesoscale (order 100 km) eddies during calm phases of the summer monsoon, and by a swift, shallow wind-driven Ekman flow as monsoon winds strengthen. Six years of moored observations at 18N 89.5E show that surface salinity has a distinct quasi-biweekly (10-25 day) variability, which is not due to changes in freshwater input. Rather, changes in salinity are related to variations in surface winds associated with the quasi-biweekly mode of the Asian summer monsoon. During the active phase of the monsoon, a shallow wind-driven Ekman flow disperses river water to the north and east, leading to increased salinity at the moorings, and a rise of coastal sea level by 0.3-0.6 m within days along the eastern boundary. In situ and satellite observations show that the response of sea surface temperature (SST) to quasi-biweekly variations of surface heat flux is enhanced by a factor of two because the mixed layer is very shallow within the pool of river water, thus revealing a direct link between SST and surface salinity...