Watermass Structure and Seasonal Circulation patterns
in the Arabian Sea
Sneha Bhowmik, Ankan Bhattacharyya, Srinjit Datta, Anushna Paul, Pranab Sarkar
Introduction
The Indian Ocean is unique in that it is
limited in the north by Asian continents.
One consequence of this is that the Arabian
Sea is a triangular tropical sea, forced by
intense, annually reversing monsoon winds.
The monsoons and their influence make it
an ideal “laboratory” for oceanographers to
study the dynamics of the Arabian Sea.
Seasonal Circulation
• The Winds blow strongly from May to
September (summer), the Southwest
(SW) monsoon, forming the Findlater jet
with maximum wind stress.
The circulation is mainly anticyclonic
(surface currents clockwise) and a negative
curl dominates over the basin (Fig 3.).
The Ekman currents flow southwards and
offshore (Fig 4.).
• During Northeast (NE) monsoon, from
November to March (winter), the winds
are weak in comparison to that of the
SW monsoon.
The surface currents are counterclockwise
and a positive wind stress curl dominates
over the basin(Fig 3.).
Ekman currents flow northwards and
onshore (Fig 4.).
• During the inter-monsoon periods
i.e. March to April and October, the
winds are the weakest and highly
variable (Fig 3.).
• The SECC flows eastward year round –
at the surface this circulation is obscured
by strong southward Ekman
currents(Fig 5).
•  The Ekman flow is strongly seasonal,
shallow and overrides the varying
geostrophic flow (Fig 4 & 5.).
• Weak basin wide anticyclonic
circulation, a northward boundary flow
- a precursor to the Great Whirl, in
April, is due to the propagation of
Rossby and Kelvin waves around the
Presidency University, Kolkata
Fig 1. Distribution of the salinity (ppt) in the maximum due to ASHSW, PGW and RSW (from left to right)
Fig 3. Monthly winds (vectors) and
wind stress curl (Color bar) from
QuikSCAT.
Fig 5. Monthly-mean geostrophic
surface currents (vectors; ms-1) from
the drifter–altimeter synthesis.
Fig 4. Monthly-mean absolute,
near-surface currents (vectors) and
formal error speeds (colour
shading) from the drifter
climatology.
Fig 6a. - Detailed schematic map of
SW monsoon (Top right).
Fig 6b – Detailed schematic map of
NE monsoon. (down right)
GW – Great whirl , an anticyclone
during SW monsoon.
SC – Somali Current, the reversal is
an effect of the monsoonal winds.
NMC – Northeast monsoonal
current, flowing westward into the
basin of South India.
LL- Lakshadweep eddy, a major
anticyclone, inshore of NMC.
SMC- Southwest monsoonal
current , flows in direction opposite
to NMC.
SECC- South Equatorial Counter
Current.
Watermass Structure
• Determined by Salinity and Temperature
• Salinity and Temperature in turn are
affected by the annual precipitation and
the SW-NE monsoon winds.
• ASHSW and ESW, on confluence, result in a
vertical variation of salinity with a
maximum at the subsurface, forming the
core of ASHSW
• The PGW and the RSW result in a
horizontal salinity gradient at the sub-
surface
• This results owing to high evaporative loss
in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea
• The Indian Ocean Equatorial Water mixes
with the ASHSW, PGW and RSW
and characterises the upper 1000 m of the
Arabian Sea.
• The bottom water of the Arabian Sea
flows from the south of the equator. 
• The bottom part of the Arabian Sea is
Fig 2. Potential temperature - lower in salinity than the water column
salinity diagram of water masses
above in the Indian Ocean and
found in the Arabian Sea
hence upwells and gradually changes into
the North Indian Deep Water.
Conclusion
The Seasonal surface circulation of the
Arabian Sea, a region dominated by annually
reversing currents are driven by the NE and
SW monsoon winds. We also see that the
water mass structure is overall driven by
salinity which is in turn affected by factors
like temperature and annual precipitation.
References
• Circulation and water masses of the Arabian
Sea (1994) - SR Shetye, AD Gouveia and SC
Shenoi
• The response of the surface circulation of the
Arabian Sea to Monsoonal forcing (2013)