Abstract
We use 14 years of satellite-derived sea-surface temperature (SST) data to compute a monthly frontal probability index (FPI) to determine the existence of a front in a pixel. A persistent SST front is deemed to exist if the FPI in a narrow region exceeds that in the surrounding ocean. We describe the seasonal variability of 17 persistent SST fronts (eight associated with the shelf-slope boundary and five with the mixing between different water masses) in the north Indian Ocean. Only weak fronts exist during a few months in the strong upwelling regimes off Somalia and Oman.
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Acknowledgements
Kankan Sarkar and Shrikant Dora acknowledge the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) and the financial support from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India. This research was supported by funds from CSIR under the OCEAN FINDER programme during 2012–2017 and TRIMFish from April 2017 onwards. MODIS Aqua SST data were downloaded from OceanColor group website; we are grateful to the OceanColor group for providing these data. The figures have been plotted using Ferret. This is CSIR–NIO contribution no. 6296.
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Supplementary material pertaining to this article is available on the Journal of Earth System Science website (http://www.ias.ac.in/Journals/Journal_of_Earth_System_Science).
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Sarkar, K., Aparna, S.G., Dora, S. et al. Seasonal variability of sea-surface temperature fronts associated with large marine ecosystems in the north Indian Ocean. J Earth Syst Sci 128, 20 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-018-1045-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-018-1045-x