Seasonal variability of the upper ocean driven by the atmospheric forcing and its regulation of nutrients and chlorophyll in the Bay of Bengal

Abstract

The upper ocean is the most variable and dynamically active part of the marine environment that couples the underlying ocean to the atmosphere above through the transfer of mass, momentum and energy. The thickness of mixed layer is an important parameter in determining the quantity of heat that is available for exchange with atmosphere which is capable of triggering several ocean-atmosphere coupled processes. Mixed layer also plays an important role in determining the chlorophyll biomass and biological productivity of the upper ocean. The present thesis is an attempt to decipher the basin-scale variability of the mixed layer in the Bay of Bengal on a seasonal scale and the factors responsible for it. The aim is also to understand how the changes in water column nitrate and chlorophyll are linked to the upper ocean variability.