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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Physical Oceanography
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1425722

Evolution characteristics and mechanisms of the spring warm pool in the Bay of Bengal

Provisionally accepted
Wenshu Lin Wenshu Lin 1Yun Qiu Yun Qiu 1,2,3*Xutao Ni Xutao Ni 1Xinyu Lin Xinyu Lin 1Tongtong Liu Tongtong Liu 1
  • 1 Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Physical and Geological Processes, Third Institute of Oceanog-raphy, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen, China
  • 2 Laboratory for Regional Oceanography and Numerical Modeling, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, China
  • 3 Southern Ocean Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In this study, we investigate the spatial structure and evolution of the spring warm pool in the Bay of Bengal (BoBWP) using daily Optimum Interpolation sea surface temperatures (SST) data from 1982-2022 in combination with multi-source data. Our analysis shows that the BoBWP is located in the central bay (6°-13°N) with a thickness around 20 m ~ 40 m. Composite analysis indicates that the BoBWP emerges in early April, peaks in early May and dissipates in early June. During the developing period, the net heat flux dominates the formation of spring warm pool through a significant air-sea coupling processes, and induces the warming rate of 0.31 ℃/10d in the mixed layer, which is far larger than the contribution of oceanic dynamical processes (0.02 ℃/10d). During the decaying period, the net heat flux also plays a dominant role, with a cooling rate of -0.11 ℃/10d, meanwhile ocean dynamical processes contribute to the cooling of the warm pool with a rate of -0.02 ℃ /10d. Additionally, the SST and area of the BoBWP are significantly correlated with ENSO (r=0.66 and 0.73, p=0.05). During El Niño decaying year, the BoBWP primarily expands in a southward, with a 75% increase in area. Conversely, during La Niña decaying year, the BoBWP almost disappears, with a 52% decrease.

    Keywords: Bay of Bengal, spring warm pool, Mixed layer, air-sea interaction, Heat budget

    Received: 30 Apr 2024; Accepted: 05 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lin, Qiu, Ni, Lin and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yun Qiu, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Physical and Geological Processes, Third Institute of Oceanog-raphy, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen, China

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