Patterns and Mechanisms of Air-Sea Interaction in The Persian Gulf

Atmospheric and marine data are used to investigate variability pattern relevant to air-sea interaction in the Persian Gulf. Statistical analysis methods are applied to determine the coupled modes of variability of monthly Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Sea Level Pressure (SLP). Emphasis is given to circulation by using ten years anomaly data smoothed by a 10 years mean. The significant of the air-sea interaction is found by a strong resemblance between EOF and SVD eigenvectors and expansion coefficients of SST and SLP. The zero contour in the first SST EOF identified the front which separates the Persian Gulf cyclonic gyres. The first mode of the SVD analysis seems depict an air-to-sea forcing, in which the sea response to the atmospheric changes appears with an semiannual and interannual time lag. The main patterns of both variables of variability of both variables independently provide considerable information on the coupling, but only one of the two variables dominates each of the two first coupled modes. The first coupled mode of variability between the sea surface temperature and atmospheric pressure can be described as a strengthening and weakening of the cyclonic gyres, which seems to force fluctuations in a north-south dipole structure in the sea surface temperature by Ekman upwelling which is wind related processes.

Patterns and Mechanisms of Air-Sea Interaction in The Persian Gulf Keywords:

Air-sea interaction , Singular value decomposition , Persian Gulf