[IIOE2-EP23] Influence of Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean dynamics and biogeochemistry on the tropical weather and climate (ISESO)
Lead Investigator and other key participant (s):
- Dr. Anil Kumar N , NCAOR, Goa 403 804, India
anil@ncaor.gov.in
Period of Project: 2002- continuing
Brief description of the Project:
The importance of the Southern Ocean (SO) for global climate change, adequate information and understanding of the processes controlling the rate of formation of water masses and its response to climate change are lacking primarily due to lack of high resolution sea truth observations. The areas east of the Crozet Plateau and west of Kerguelen-Amsterdam Passage are the key regions where the fronts confluence and split again. The data available from this region are sparse, but remain under-investigated, which hamper our knowledge regarding the influence of SO in the climate change scenario. Therefore, large-scale, detailed, multi-ship, synoptic and time-series sea truth observations of this area deserve highest priority in any program of observational studies of the SO. Further the SO circulation is linked with the Indian Ocean circulation through the Equatorial, Agulhas and Circumpolar current systems. Hence the exchange of heat and mass through these currents shall affect the physical and biogeochemical processes of the tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) ecosystem as well as the Indian climate. The upper-ocean variabilities, the mechanism of ocean-atmosphere interaction, hydrodynamics, carbon dynamics, marine productivity, food web dynamics and the multi-scale interactions between various weather and climate processes over the study region (between 40oS & 69oS, 40oE & 80oE) will be the major research topics. We plan to conduct field observations, dynamical analysis, studies on biogeochemical cycles, marine productivity and numerical experiments using both the oceanic general circulation model and the coupled general circulation model. The results of this Project is expected to improve our understanding about the impact of SO on regional climatic variabilities, mechanism of seamless climate system, and to improve the performance of local and global coupled models. Moreover, the data generated from these studies shall be a major input for improved understanding of the future predictions of Indian climate.
Region of study
Indian sector of the Southern Ocean [between 40°S & 69°S: 40°E & 80°E]