Sea Surface Salinity variation in the Bay of Bengal region

Abstract
This project is based on determining the intra-seasonal
variability of Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) over Bay of Bengal
region in the Indian Ocean and defining the impacts of intra-
seasonal variability of SSS during Pre monsoon and Post
monsoon. As liquid water dissolves the rocks and sediments
from shores, volcanic and hydrothermal vents creating
complex salt solution in our ocean basin. But water in the
form of ice and vapour is basically salt free. By studying
salinity, we study the freshwater input and output via which
we can observe the ocean dynamics. By tracking the SSS we
can observe the melting and freezing; precipitation and
evaporation and the influx of river water in ocean.

Introduction
Bay of Bengal is unique tropical basin located in the
north eastern part of Indian ocean covering over 6°N to 22°N
and 80°E to 94°E.Making it one of the largest bay in the
world. It receives large amount of fresh water from the Ganga,
the Mahanadi, the Krishna and the Brahmaputra and it also
receives large amount fresh water in the form of precipitation.
Which makes it rich in bio-diversity and resulting in sharp
upper-ocean salinity stratification is thought to influence
tropical cyclones intensity and biological productivity by
inhibiting vertical mixing, thereby reducing the air-sea
coupling negative feedback, and strengthening post-monsoon
cyclones (Neetu et al., 2019). It is also believed to inhibit
vertical mixing of nutrients and to reduce marine biological
productivity in the BoB (Prasanna Kumar et al., 2002). For all
those reasons, it is important to monitor Sea Surface Salinity
(hereafter, SSS) variations in this basin. The monsoon itself
does not come as a single, long downpour, but is modulated at
intra-seasonal timescales by ‘active’ (or rainy) and ‘break’ (or
dry) periods. The northward propagation of the rainfall occurs
due to the convergence of atmospheric boundary layer with
north of the maximum of convection.

Three recent spaceborne missions may help improving the

BoB SSS description. Measurements from the Soil Moisture
and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission of the European Space
Agency (ESA) launched in 2009 have a mean resolution close
to 50 km, two other spaceborne missions of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), namely the
Aquarius/Sac-D mission launched in 2011 and the Soil
Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission launched in 2015.
In addition, the Aquarius mission ended in 2015 due to an
unrecoverable hardware failure. In contrast, SMAP provides
SSS retrieval at a spatial resolution similar to that of SMOS,
and suffers from lighter land contamination issues compared
to SMOS (Reul et al., 2014).

Relationship between the sea surface salinity and sea surface

temperature in the Bay of Bengal region

This BoB basin the recipient of intense precipitation and

continental river runoff, with most of the freshwater flux
entering the northern half of the basin during summer
monsoon and post-monsoon season. The yearly freshwater
flux received by the BoB largely exceeds the freshwater flux
evaporated back to the atmosphere (Shenoi et al. 2002;
Sengupta et al. 2006). As a result, sea surface salinity (SSS) is
consistently very low in the northern BoB (typically inferior
to 321 ). This low SSS in the BoB is thought to have various
implications for regional climate through its stabilizing effect
of the water column. These fresh surface waters indeed
maintain shallow mixed layers in the Bay, which are
efficiently warmed by surface heat fluxes (e.g. de Boyer
Montégut et al. 2007). They are thus held responsible for the
consistently high sea surface temperature (SST) in the BoB,
compared to the neighbouring tropical basins (Han et al. 2001;
Shenoi et al. 2002; Rao et al. 2002a; Girishkumar et al. 2013).
As the SST is often above the critical threshold of 28°C
(considered as the limit above which deep atmospheric
convection can develop, e.g. Gadgil et al. 1984), the BoB is
prone to intense air-sea interactions. A well-known
manifestation of these is the development of tropical
depressions and cyclones over the Bay, which intensity could
be partly controlled by this salinity stratification. These salt-
stratified waters indeed inhibit vertical mixing under tropical
cyclones and reduce the resulting surface cooling (Sengupta et
al. 2008, Neetu et al. 2012), therefore promoting an intense
surface evaporation that contributes to the cyclones
intensification. This control of upper ocean temperature by
BoB salinity stratification is not limited to the influence of
tropical cyclones, but also occurs at longer timescales. Two
recent studies indeed suggested that intraseasonal SST
variability in the Northern BoB could be modulated by
salinity stratification (Vinayachandran et al. 2012,
Girishkumar et al. 2013). These influences of SSS on SST and
atmosphere demands depth study in the variability of SSS in
the Bay of Bengal region.
Inter Seasonal Variation

The region that is most affected by the inter seasonal variation

is the northern part of the basin. As the dominant rivers have
outlet in the west-north, they cause huge interseason variation.
During summer and post monsoon due to the large influx of
water cause lowest salinity. Due to the summer monsoon the
fresh water flow ramps up, causing salinity to be lowest in the
summer. By the fall these fresh water moves towards south.
And during winter these fresh water moves towards
northward.

Data suggest that SSS inter annual variation in relation to

Indian Ocean Dipole(IOD) is at its peak in boreal fall(Sep-to-
Nov), resulting in positive IOD which weakens the southward
export of fresh water by East Indian Coastal Current (EICC)
inducing negative SSS anomalies in Northern Bob and
positive anomalies in Southern BoB. In positive phase IOD is
characterised by cold SST in Java Sumatra region and warm
SST anomaly in western Indian Ocean. ). Positive IOD events
are for instance also characterized by reduced atmospheric
convection in the eastern Indian Ocean.

The annual variance of SSS is more pronounced in the NIO

with onshore maxima occurring in the northern and coastal
regions of the BB, off Arabia coast and off southwest India. In
the southeastern AS, the SSS maxima propagate from off
southwest India to the interior from July –August to October.
In the northwestern BB an offshore propagation of SSS
maxima during March –April to September is noticed. The
incorporation of salinity effect reduces the thickness of the
mixed layer. In the BB, these differences build up from June
to July and attain maximum during the following February,
when the freshening effects of hydrological forcing through
local rainfall and river discharges are felt the most on the
nearsurface waters. These differences begin to weaken from
February and attain minima during May, i.e., before the
commencement of the summer monsoon season. Despite
constraints in both accuracy and adequacy of measurements or
estimates, the relative importance of fresh water flux,
horizontal advection and entrainment on the salt budget of the
mixed layer has clearly emerged in the space-time domain.
During winter, the horizontal advection overwhelms local
fresh water flux in producing large variability in SSS. During
presummer monsoon season, the variability due to fresh water
flux and horizontal advection is relatively low in comparison
with that of during winter. During the summer monsoon
season, freshwater input causes significant dilution in the
northern BB and eastern AS with onshore maxima (due to
orography effects and river discharges). The advective
contribution with smaller space scales is more pronounced in
the eastern and western AS, and the BB. During the
postmonsoon season the fresh water input is most pronounced
in northeastern and northwestern BB and southwest of Sri
Lanka. Horizontal advection also contributes to significant
reduction in SSS in these regions. Among all the four seasons,
the best agreement between diagnosed and observed changes
is seen during the summer monsoon season due to large
amplitude signals. In the BB north of 8N the residual of P + R
jEj is positive almost throughout the year, reaching maximum
during the height of the summer monsoon season when the
SSS is minimum. Historic SSS data along two major shipping
lanes clearly show interannual variability both in amplitude
and phase associated with El Nin˜o. For instance, in the near-
zonal section, the SSS did not reach 36.5% (boxes 5 – 11)
only during 1982, 1983, and 1987, the years of pronounced El
Nin˜o. The southeastern BB also shows considerable
variability with the occurrence of waters

Interannual Variation
The BoB upper ocean salinity stratification is believed to play
a key-role in the Indian Ocean climate (e.g. Shenoi et al.
2002). Several observational studies have described the BoB
SSS seasonal cycle and its driving processes over the past two
decades (e.g. Rao and Sivakumar 2003; Chatterjee et al. 2012;
Chaitanya et al. 2014). This seasonal cycle is closely linked to
the monsoonal control of rainfall, river runoffs, and upper
ocean circulation (Benshila et al. 2014; Akhil et al. 2014).
Beyond this prominent seasonal cycle, there is also
considerable interannual variability over the BoB.
Precipitation (e.g. Gadgil 2003) and riverine freshwater
supply to the bay (Papa et al. 2012) in particular vary
significantly from year to year. Using Argo profilers, a couple
of repeated ship-of-opportunity buckets and XCTD transects,
as well as RAMA 15 and OMNI moorings data. We merged
these different datasets to obtain a 2° x 2° x trimonthly
product that satisfactorily covers the BoB at regional scale
over 2009-2014. The observed variability displays an 18-
month long saltening period from mid-2009 to late 2010,
followed by a 15-month long freshening period from late
2010 to early 2012. The late 2013 – early 2014 period is also
fresher than normal. The freshwater fluxes from oceanic
precipitation and continental river runoff are most consistent
with the observed NEB-average SSS interannual tendency.
Precipitation and river runoff both contribute to the observed
salting and freshening events. The precipitation and runoff
however do not vary coherently: they reinforce each other
during some years while they vary independently during
others. .

The minor effect of the advective processes on the 2010 SSS

variability. In September-October-November 2011, in
contrast, the flow is southward across NEB boundary, down
the seasonal SSS gradient, which explains the strong
freshening effect of advection during this period. Parampil et
al. (2010) ( Ocean Dyn., vol.65(2))

Conclusion

Due limited in situ measurement the study of SSS interannual

variation is not done as required. Forwardly work should be
done in the correlation of interseason and interannual SSS
variation in this region. In this study we can see the SSS
impact on other atmospheric factors. Seasonal variation of
SSS and interannual variation which demands further study
and observation.

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