Importance of wind variations and intersecting waveguides near Sri Lanka for the intraseasonal sea level variability along the west coast of India

Remote wind forcing plays a strong role in the Northern Indian Ocean, where oceanic anomalies can travel long distances within the coastal waveguide. Previous studies for instance emphasized that remote equatorial forcing is the main driver of the sea level and currents intraseasonal variability along the west coast of India (WCI). Until now, the main pathway for this connection between the equatorial and coastal waveguides was thought to occur in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean, through coastal Kelvin waves that propagate around the Bay of Bengal rim and then around Sri Lanka to the WCI. Using a linear, continuously stratified ocean model, the present study demonstrates that two other mechanisms in fact dominate. First, the equatorial waveguide also intersects the coastal waveguide at the southern tip of India and Sri Lanka, creating a direct connection between the equator and WCI. Rossby waves reflected from the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean boundary indeed have a sufficiently wide meridional scale to induce a pressure signal at the Sri Lankan coast, which eventually propagates to the WCI as a coastal Kelvin wave. Second, local wind variations in the vicinity of Sri Lanka generate strong intraseasonal signals, which also propagate to the WCI along the same path. Sensitivity experiments indicate that these two new mechanisms (direct equatorial connection and local wind variations near Sri Lanka) dominate the WCI intraseasonal sea level variability, with the “classical” pathway around the Bay of Bengal only coming next. Other contributions (Bay of Bengal forcing, local WCI forcing) are much weaker.

We further show that the direct connection between the equatorial waveguide and WCI is negligible at seasonal timescale, but not at interannual timescales where it contributes to the occurrence of anoxic events. By providing an improved understanding of the mechanisms that control the WCI thermocline and oxycline variability, our results could have socio-economic implications for regional fisheries and ecosystems.