Ambica Behara

Indian Institute of Science | IISC · Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS)

From June–September, the summer monsoon current (SMC) flows eastward south of Sri Lanka and bends northeastward to form a swift jet that enters the Bay of Bengal (BoB). This part of SMC serves as the major component of the water exchange between the Arabian Sea and the BoB, maintaining the salt and freshwater of the North Indian Ocean. The processe...

The west coast of India and the adjoining eastern Arabian Sea (EAS) is one of the high rainfall zones of Indian summer monsoon. The summer monsoon rainfall in this region is about 1,036 km³, which is comparable to the annual runoff of the Ganga‐Brahmaputra river system. We have investigated the impact of EAS rainfall and Bay of Bengal (BoB) low‐sal...

The region of relatively cooler water, sitting in the shadow zone of monsoon rainfall, around southern tip of India and around Sri Lanka, is known as the cold pool. A ship-board observations program to the east of Sri Lanka during the summer monsoon of 2009 captured two cooling events within the core of the Summer Monsoon Current (SMC). Time-series...

Plain Language Summary The northern Indian Ocean experiences a seasonal reversal of currents due to monsoon winds. During the summer, the monsoon current transports high‐salinity water from the Arabian Sea into the Bay of Bengal. This supply of salty water is believed to originate from the eastern Arabian Sea. Here we find that the intrusion of hig...

From June--September, the summer monsoon current (SMC) flows eastward south of Sri Lanka and turns northeastward to enter into the Bay of Bengal (BoB). The SMC is crucial for understanding exchanges between Arabian sea (AS) and BoB. The SMC shows high speeds around Sri Lanka, the reasons for which are unknown. Processes involved in the interaction...

Though the deep mixed layers (MLs) that form in the northeastern Arabian Sea (NEAS) during the winter monsoon (November–February) have been attributed to convective mixing driven by dry, cool northeasterly winds from the Indian subcontinent, data show that the deepest MLs occur in the northern NEAS and the maxima of latent-heat and net heat fluxes...

Individual and combined effects of rainfall and river discharge on the Bay of Bengal (BoB) is investigated using an Ocean General Circulation Model. A set of four sensitivity experiments, forced with same air-sea heat flux, but retaining either river runoff or rainfall or both is carried out. These experiments show that the river water is exported...

A pool of relatively cooler water, called here as the southern Bay of Bengal cold pool, exists around Sri Lanka and southern tip of India during the summer monsoon. This cold pool is enveloped by the larger Indian Ocean warm pool and is believed to affect the intraseasonal variations of summer monsoon rainfall. In this study, we have investigated t...

Though the deep mixed layers (MLs) that form in the northeastern Arabian Sea (NEAS) during the winter monsoon (November–February) have been attributed to convective mixing driven by dry, cool northeasterly winds from the Indian subcontinent, data show that the deepest MLs occur in the northern NEAS and the maxima of latent-heat and net heat fluxes...