Estimation of Heat and Salt variability in the Indian Ocean
from TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetry and MICOM simulations
Bulusu Subrahmanyam
COAPS/Florida State University
Abstract:
The presentation deals with estimating heat and salt storage associated
with
the surface circulation in the Indian Ocean using a combination of
sea-level anomalies derived from TOPEX/Poseidon altimetry and in-situ
sea-level computed from climatological hydrographic data. The accuracies
of
derived heat and salt storage are evaluated using hydrographic data
collected along the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE)
Transindian
Ocean Section I1. These estimates are used to study the seasonal and
interannual variability, and the exchanges of heat and salt variability
in
Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. Estimates of the heat budget of the
Indian
Ocean computed using TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) Sea Level Anomalies (SLA) and
the
Miami Isopycnal Coordinate Ocean Model (MICOM) are compared.