Study of Seasonal Variations of Northern Ocean Surface Currents Using Wind and Satellite Altimetry Data

With identification of monthly surface currents in an ocean area, one can detect accumulation of pollutants, sea fronts and ocean eddies. Surface currents are derived from two components; Ekman component (current due to wind) and geostrophic current (current due to change in sea surface height). Since measurement of oceanic currents is difficult and time consuming, OSCAR satellite data is used in this paper to look at the current vectors in the Indian Ocean using Arcmap software. After plotting the vectors of these streams, the path of each current flow and its characteristics are noted and the average surface waters of the North Indian Ocean are surveyed in different sections of the study. The results show six sustained and significant flow patterns in the north of the Indian Ocean along with their ivy. The strongest current in the north of the Indian Ocean, the Somali stream, and the eastern Arabic flow are weaker than all the streams of this region. The average flow velocity is 0/12 m/s. Typical velocity varies from 0.001 m/s to 1.37 m/s is this ocean. Currents with measo-scale eddies have also a typical velocity of 0.7 m/s.