Prediction of Coastal Upwelling Using Remote Sensing

Abstract: South Eastern Arabian Sea (SEAS) is a unique oceanic basin within the Arabian Sea where a suite of phenomenon takes place over a year ranging from coastal upwelling during summer monsoon season along the south west coast of India to monsoon onset vortex to the Arabian Sea miniwarm pool before the onset of summer monsoon and formation of algal blooms. Seven years (2007-2013) of satellite sea surface temperature (SST) data, chlorophyll data, and wind data were used to predict the coastal upwelling in the South East Arabian Sea. Upwelling areas are determined by lower SST and higher Chlorophyll concentrations. Upwelling indices such as Latitude Temperature Gradient (LTG), Chlorophyll Extension Index and Ekman indices was computed from SST, Chlorophyll and wind data respectively, and by using those indices variations of upwelling dynamics was studied and inter-annual variability was found out for predicting the coastal upwelling in the South East Arabian Sea.

Keywords: Upwelling, Sea Surface Temperature, Chlorophyll, Latitude temperature gradient.