The Indian Ocean‘s role in GHG variability over India

Raghu Murtugudde

ESSIC-DAOS, University of Maryland

College Park, MD 20742

•Can we ignore the Indian Ocean while measuring the Greenhouse Gases over the Indian subcontinent?

Circulation schematic for Southwest Monsoon

Schott 2004

Circulation schematic for Northeast Monsoon

Schott 2004

deep

NL, 2000

November - April

May - Octobernot covered

Moorings

not deployed

WOCE sections, arrays

post WOCE

Surface drifter currents for both monsoon seasons

•180 WOCE drifters 1992-95

•350 TOGA/ENSO drifters since 1995

•WE CAN USE DRIFTERS TO MEASURE GHG FLUXES FROM THE OCEAN

Courtesy P. Niiler

SEC

SW Monsoon

NE monsoon

SECC

Net heat (Wm-2) and CO2 (mol/m2/yr) fluxes

over Indian Ocan

India obviously has its own season of wildfires but what about contributions from other regions even when India’s wildfires are at their minimum?

The proposed array May not capture the hotspots of interest for GHGs.

Indian Ocean Zonal mode ensemble pattern Wind stress and SST

It may or may not be a dipole at all but when the

eastern Indian Ocean cools, there are impacts on the

Indian Monsoons.

Courtesy H. Annamalai

Peak (SON)

Tropical cyclone days for Dec-Apr

Climatological mean of number of cyclone days (contours)difference between deep and shallow mixed layer (shading)

(Xie et al., 2002)