Stéphane Pous

Hydrology and circulation in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman—Results from the GOGP99 Experiment: 1. Strait of Hormuz

In October and early November 1999, the GOGP99 experiment collected hydrological, currentmeter, tide recorder, thermistor and drifting buoy data near the Strait of Hormuz. Data analysis provides the water mass structure in the Strait: Persian Gulf Water (PGW) core is banked against the Omani coast, while Indian Ocean Surface Water (IOSW) lies near the Iranian coast. These water masses are most often covered by a homogeneous surface layer. Thermohaline characteristics of the PGW core decrease substantially downstream, from the Persian/Arabian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. PGW and IOSW thermohaline characteristics and distribution also exhibit notable changes at periods shorter than a month as shown by repeated hydrological sections. The tidal signal measured south of the Strait by moored ADCP and thermistor chains has predominant semi-diurnal M2 and S2 and diurnal K1 components and possesses a complex vertical structure. Tidal intensification near the surface pycnocline is associated with noticeable internal waves. At subtidal timescale, mooring recordings confirm the water mass variability observed in the repeated hydrological sections. The mixed layer also deepens substantially during the 1-month period. Finally, trajectories of surface buoys drogued at 15 m exhibit reversals over periods characteristic of changes in wind direction.

Contribution of mesoscale processes to nutrient budgets in the Arabian Sea

We examine the impact of mesoscale dynamics on the seasonal cycle of primary production in the Arabian Sea with an eddy-resolving (1/12°) bio-physical model. Comparison with observations indicates that the numerical model provides a realistic description of climatological physical and biogeochemical fields as well as their mesoscale variability during the Southwest and Northeast Monsoons. We show that mesoscale dynamics favors biological production by modulating the nutrient supplies throughout the year. Different processes are involved depending on the blooming season. During the summer bloom period, we found that the main process is the export of nutrients from coastal upwelling regions into the central Arabian Sea by mesoscale filaments. Our model suggests that lateral advection accounts for 50–70% of the total supply of nutrients to the central AS. A less expected result is the major input of nutrients (up to 60–90%) supplied to upwelling regions during the early stage of the summer bloom period by eddy-induced vertical advection. During the winter bloom period, our model evidences for the first time how vertical velocities associated with mesoscale structures increase the supply of nutrients to the upper layer by 40–50% in the central Arabian Sea. Finally, the restratification effect of mesoscale structures modulates spatially and temporally the restratification that occurs at large-scale at the end of the Northeast Monsoon. Although this effect has no significant impact on the large-scale budget, it could be a source of uncertainty in satellite and in-situ observations.

Cyclogeostrophic balance in the Mozambique Channel

Three methods are proposed for the inclusion of inertia when deriving currents from sea surface height (SSH) in the Mozambique Channel: gradient wind, perturbation expansion, and an iterative method. They are tested in a model and applied to satellite altimetry. For an eddy of 25 cm amplitude and 100 km radius, typical of Mozambique Channel rings at 18°S, the error made with geostrophy is 40% for the anticyclones and 20% for the cyclones. Inertia could reach one third of the pressure gradient. Geostrophy underestimates subsurface currents by up to 50 cm s−1, resulting in errors of 30–40%. The iterative method results in errors of 50% in Mozambique Channel rings. Geostrophic EKE reaches 1400 cm2 s−2, while it attains 1800 cm2 s−2 when inertia is added. Applied to the Gulf Stream, these methods confirm the hypothesis of Maximenko and Niiler [2006] that centrifugal accelerations should be the main cause for the difference observed between geostrophic and drifter EKE. This methodology should result in a net improvement for operational surface ocean currents.

The NOW regional coupled model: Application to the tropical Indian Ocean climate and tropical cyclone activity

This paper presents the NOW regional coupled ocean-atmosphere model built from the NEMO ocean and WRF atmospheric numerical models. This model is applied to the tropical Indian Ocean, with the oceanic and atmospheric components sharing a common 1 =4 horizontal grid. Long experiments are performed over the 1990–2009 period using the Betts-Miller-Janjic (BMJ) and Kain-Fritsch (KF) cumulus parameterizations. Both simulations produce a realistic distribution of seasonal rainfall and a realistic northward seasonal migration of monsoon rainfall over the Indian subcontinent. At subseasonal time scales, the model reasonably reproduces summer monsoon active and break phases, although with underestimated rainfall and surface wind signals. Its relatively high resolution results in realistic spatial and seasonal distributions of tropical cyclones, but it fails to reproduce the strongest observed cyclone categories. At interannual time scales, the model reproduces the observed variability associated with the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and the delayed basin-wide warming/cooling induced by the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The timing of IOD occurrence in the model generally matches that of the observed events, confirming the influence of ENSO on the IOD development (through the effect of lateral boundary conditions in our simulations). Although the KF and BMJ simulations share a lot in common, KF strongly overestimates rainfall at all time scales. KF also overestimates the number of simulated cyclones by a factor two, while simulating stronger events (up to 55 m s -1 -1 ). These results could be related to an overly active cumulus parameterization in KF.

Circulation around La Réunion and Mauritius islands in the south‐western Indian Ocean: A modeling perspective

The objective of this study is to document the circulation in the vicinity of La Reunion and Mauritius islands, i.e., within 500 km offshore, on the intraseasonal time scale, using a high-resolution realistic modeling strategy. The simulated sea level anomalies, water mass properties, and large-scale circulation compare favorably with satellite and in situ observations. Our high-resolution simulation suggests that the currents around the islands are maximal locally, oriented southwestward, to the southeast of both islands which is not visible in low-resolution satellite observations. It also highlights the high degree of variability of the circulation, which is dominated by westward propagating features. The predominant time scale of variability is 60 days. This coincides with the period of a barotropic mode of variability confined to the Mascarene Basin. The characteristics of the westward propagating anomalies are related to baroclinic Rossby waves crossing the Indian Ocean but only in the long-wave resting ocean limit. Tracking those anomalies as eddies shows that they also have a meridional tendency in their trajectory, northward for cyclones and southward for anticyclones, which is consistent with previous studies. Sensitivity experiments suggest that they are predominantly advected from the east, but there is also local generation in the lee of the islands, due to interaction between the circulation and topography.

Processes of interannual mixed layer temperature variability in the thermocline ridge of the Indian Ocean

Abstract Sea-surface temperature interannual anomalies (SSTAs) in the thermocline ridge of the southwestern tropical Indian Ocean (TRIO) have several well-documented climate impacts. In this paper, we explore the physical processes responsible for SSTA evolution in the TRIO region using a combination of observational estimates and model-derived surface layer heat budget analyses. Vertical oceanic processes contribute most to SSTA variance from December to June, while lateral advection dominates from July to November. Atmospheric fluxes generally damp SSTA generation in the TRIO region. As a result of the phase opposition between the seasonal cycle of vertical processes and lateral advection, there is no obvious peak in SSTA amplitude in boreal winter, as previously noted for heat content anomalies. Positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) events and the remote influence of El Niño induce comparable warming over the TRIO region, though IOD signals peak earlier (November–December) than those associated with El Niño (around March–May). Mechanisms controlling the SSTA growth in the TRIO region induced by these two climate modes differ strongly. While SSTA growth for the IOD mostly results from southward advection of warmer water, increased surface shortwave flux dominates the El Niño SSTA growth. In both cases, vertical oceanic processes do not contribute strongly to the initial SSTA growth, but rather maintain the SSTA by opposing the effect of atmospheric negative feedbacks during the decaying phase.