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The warm pool in the Indian Ocean

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Abstract

The structure of the warm pool (region with temperature greater than 28°C) in the equatorial Indian Ocean is examined and compared with its counterpart in the Pacific Ocean using the climatology of Levitus. Though the Pacific warm pool is larger and warmer, a peculiarity of the pool in the Indian Ocean is its seasonal variation. The surface area of the pool changes from 24 × 106 km2 in April to 8 × 106 km2 in September due to interaction with the southwest monsoon. The annual cycles of sea surface temperature at locations covered by the pool during at least a part of the year show the following modes: (i) a cycle with no significant variation (observed in the western equatorial Pacific and central and eastern equatorial Indian Ocean), (ii) a single maximum/minimum (northern and southern part of the Pacific warm pool and the south Indian Ocean), (iii) two maxima/minima (Arabian Sea, western equatorial Indian Ocean and southern Bay of Bengal), and (iv) a rapid rise, a steady phase and a rapid fall (northern Bay of Bengal).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Oceanography, 403 004, Dona Paula, Goa, India

    P. N. Vinayachandran & S. R. Shetye

  2. Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, 560 012, Bangalore, India

    P. N. Vinayachandran

Authors
  1. P. N. Vinayachandran
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  2. S. R. Shetye
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Vinayachandran, P.N., Shetye, S.R. The warm pool in the Indian Ocean. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. (Earth Planet Sci.) 100, 165–175 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02839431

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02839431

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