The East India Coastal Current region is highly energetic in the submesoscale regime, with pronounced seasonal variability characterized by enhanced activity during the winter monsoon and suppressed conditions during spring.
Freshwater inputs from rivers and rainfall play a crucial role in modulating upper-ocean stratification, mixed layer depth, and barrier layer thickness, thereby influencing the generation of mixed-layer and symmetric instabilities.
Using high-resolution (∼1 km) Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) simulations, we examine how submesoscale currents (SMCs), fronts, filaments, and eddies evolve under varying seasonal and atmospheric conditions in the Bay of Bengal.
The generation, variability, and modulation of submesoscale processes), with a focus on the East India Coastal Current (EICC) and freshwater forcing from rivers, rainfall, and extreme weather events, are examined.
The interaction of freshwater plumes with extreme events is explored through case studies of a category 5 tropical cyclone (Phailin) and a rainfall-induced plume associated with cyclone Komen.
Overall, the results highlight a complex interplay between seasonal circulation, freshwater forcing, and atmospheric disturbances in shaping submesoscale dynamics in the Bay of Bengal, with important implications for vertical exchanges, cyclone-ocean interactions, and biogeochemical processes in freshwater-influenced region.
