Intraseasonal Variability of Sea Surface Temperature in the Sea of Oman and the Arabian Sea: Argo Study

Sea surface temperature (SST) is a critical oceanic parameter used in most of the statistical and dynamic prediction models. In association with monsoon cycle, the SST exhibits large variability in the northwestern Indian Ocean both in space and time. The present study investigates the intraseasonal variability of SST influenced by the monsoon cycle in the Sea of Oman and the Arabian Sea regions by examination of Argo datasets from 2004-2019. Significant variability is observed in the SST amplitude during the summer monsoon, where minimum value reaches 26.8°C in August in the central Arabian Sea and above 32°C in July in the Sea of Oman region. Our analysis results show that SST amplitudes are always high in the Arabian Sea regions during the transition periods and low during the summer monsoon. The lower amplitude of SST during the summer monsoon indicates strong winds forcing in the Arabian Sea regions as opposed to the Sea of Oman region where SST amplitudes always large. Our analysis results, based on Argo datasets, might be equally important for the air-sea interaction study and statistical dynamic models to predict the extreme weather events in the tropical Indian Ocean.