CONTRIBUTION OF ATMOSPHERIC FORCES TO MEAN SEA LEVEL FLUCTUATIONS IN THE PERSIAN GULF AND OMAN SEA

Sea level is an important oceanographic parameter which describes sea surface dynamics. The sea level data are necessary for a wide range of activities related to the marine environment such as safety of navigation, hydrographic survey, impact on the coastal infrastructures, scientific analyses of the sea level changes, etc. So, understanding the behavior of sea level fluctuations seems to be mandatory. The Persian Gulf (PG) is the waterway located between Iran and Arabian Peninsula and joined to Oman Sea by Hormoz strait; so connected to the open seas. PG is considered as the third largest gulfs in the world after Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay. Length of PG is about 800 km from Hormoz strait to most western parts and the widest part is about 290 km, having maximum depth of more than 90 m. The weather of PG is (half) tropical so in summers the air temperature rises to 50°C and drops to 7°C in winters. Dominant wind in this area is called Shamal which is blowing from northwest and changes its direction in southern area in which tilts towards east.The Oman Sea (OS) also divides Iran and Arabian Peninsula and forms the link between the PG and Arabian Sea. It is 560 km long and at its widest point is 320 kmwide. The maximum depth of OS is 3500 m. During wintertime (November-March) the winds are not strong. However, during summertime (May-September) a verystrong and continuous southwestern wind blows. Although there were a lot of studies on tidal variation modeling in the PG, but only a few of them focused onnon-tidal sea level variations [1,2]. In this paper the likely effect of atmospheric forces on mean sea level fluctuations will be investigated. Analysis of sea level records alongPG and Oman Sea and extraction of non-tidal signals will be followed by evaluation of the correlation between atmospheric forces with sea level variations.