A MODEL STUDY OF THE SEASONAL CYCLE OF THE ARABIAN SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURE

The annual variation of the SST along a zonal strip from the coast of Somalia to the southwest coast of India was simulated using available data (monthly-mean heat and momentum fluxes across the air-sea interface, surface advective field, etc. ) as input to a Kraus-Turner mixed-layer model. Three cases were examined: influence of surface fluxes; the effects of surface fluxes and vertical advection; and effect of horizontal advection. The model forced with the surface heat and momentum fluxes alone simulated reasonably well the SST variability throughout the year except during the May-August (southwest monsoon) cooling phase. The model was found to be inadeqate to handle the coastal areas during this phase. Over the open-sea regime the performance of the model was better; and, it improved when the influence of advection was included.