Atmospheric Forcing and the Monsoon Intraseasonal Oscillation in the Bay of Bengal
Abstract
This project will investigate the processes that determine the vertical structure and evolution of the upper ocean in the Bay of Ben"gal(b)B) during the Monsoon Intraseasonal Oscillation (MISO), with a focus on developing innovative strategies to provide the measur"ements of air-sea fluxes needed to understand regional differences in surface fluxes and upper-ocean response in the MISO. The shallow salinity stratification in the BoB favors a relatively rapid response of the upper ocean to surface forcing and we hypothesize that regional (south-to-north) variations in the upper-ocean salinity stratification and the atmospheric forcing are important factors in producing the observed SST response on intraseasonal timescales. The MISO is a lare-scale phenomenon covering the full extent of the BoB. Several essential air-sea flux variables can only be adequately measured with in situ instrumentation (downward solar and" infrared radiaton, air temperature, and air humidity), and making these measurments on the time and space scales relevant for under"standing air-sea interaction in the MISO is a difficult observational challenge. Making these measurements at several additional locations for MISO-BoB using conventional surface moorings would be too costly. We propose two innovative approaches to meeting the challenge of resolving the large-scale spatial variability of air-sea fluxes in MISO-BoB: (1) fast-and light expeditionary surface buoy"s, drogued to deeper waters so that the buoys remain nearly stationary for 1-2 months , and (2) use of two Liquid Robotics Wave Glid"ers with surface flux packages. Ideally the two approaches would be combined to allow validation of the Waveglider measurements and to then allow autonomous observations that would extend the duration of the MISO-BoB data beyond the intensive operating period.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Nov 03, 2017
- Source ID
- N000141712880
Entities
People
- J. Thomas Farrar
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution