Southeastern Arabian Sea Salinity variability: mechanisms and influence on surface temperature

International audiencePrevious studies suggest that the winter surface freshening in the southeastern Arabian Sea (SEAS) contributes to the development of very high Sea Surface Temperatures (SST) thereby influencing the following summer monsoon onset. Here, we use forced and coupled simulations with a regional ocean general circulation model to explore the SEAS Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) variability mechanisms and impact on the monsoon. Both configurations capture the main SEAS oceanographic features, and confirm that the winter SSS decrease results from horizontal advection of Bay of Bengal freshwater by the cyclonic circulation around India during fall. A coupled model sensitivity experiment where salinity has no effect on mixing indicates that the salinity stratification reduces the SEAS mixed layer cooling by vertical processes by 3 °C seasonally. Salinity however enhances mixed layer cooling by a similar amount through concentrating negative winter surface heat fluxes into a thinner mixed layer, resulting in no climatological impact on SST and summer monsoon rainfall. The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is the main driver of the winter SEAS SSS interannual variability (r ~ 0.8). Salty anomalies generated in the western Bay of Bengal during fall by positive IOD events are indeed transported by the cyclonic climatological coastal circulation, reaching the SEAS in winter. By this time, warm IOD-induced SST anomalies in the SEAS are already decaying, and the SEAS SSS anomalies hence do not contribute to their development. Overall, our model results suggest a weak climatological and interannual impact of the SEAS winter freshening on local SST and following monsoon onset