%0 Journal Article
%T Comparative Analysis of Sea Surface Temperature Pattern in the Eastern and Western Gulfs of Arabian Sea and the Red Sea in Recent Past Using Satellite Data
%A Neha Nandkeolyar
%A Mini Raman
%A G. Sandhya Kiran
%A Ajai
%J International Journal of Oceanography
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/501602
%X With unprecedented rate of development in the countries surrounding the gulfs of the Arabian Sea, there has been a rapid warming of these gulfs. In this regard, using Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data from 1985 to 2009, a climatological study of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and its inter annual variability in the Persian Gulf (PG), Gulf of Oman (GO), Gulf of Aden (GA), Gulf of Kutch (KTCH), Gulf of Khambhat (KMBT), and Red Sea (RS) was carried out using the normalized SST anomaly index. KTCH, KMBT, and GA pursued the typical Arabian Sea basin bimodal SST pattern, whereas PG, GO, and RS followed unimodal SST curve. In the western gulfs and RS, from 1985 to 1991-1992, cooling was observed followed by rapid warming phase from 1993 onwards, whereas in the eastern gulfs, the phase of sharp rise of SST was observed from 1995 onwards. Strong influence of the El Ni£¿o and La Ni£¿a and the Indian Ocean Dipole on interannual variability of SST of gulfs was observed. Annual and seasonal increase of SST was lower in the eastern gulfs than the western gulfs. RS showed the highest annual increase of normalized SST anomaly (+0.64/decade) followed by PG (+0.4/decade). 1. Introduction In today¡¯s era, one of the greatest challenges faced by humankind is ¡°global warming.¡± There has been a 0.6¡ãC increase in global temperature in the last century, and it is projected to further increase by 1.8¡ãC to 4¡ãC in the 21st century [1], posing a serious threat to the socioeconomic sector worldwide. With oceans covering approximately 72% of the earth¡¯s surface, any discussion on climate change and global warming would remain incomplete without including the role of the oceans. Studies have revealed that because of the increase in greenhouse gases, the oceans are warming significantly, which is affecting the marine ecosystem [2¨C5], resulting in shifting of habitats and dwindling of marine biota. Most of the studies with respect to climate change have focussed on global scale changes [5¨C15]. However, an exhaustive analysis at the regional and local levels is needed for framing adaptive and mitigative strategies to alleviate the effect of global warming. In the Indian context, the recent finding, that amongst the oceans, the warming of the Indian Ocean is second highest [15], is a cause of worry and calls for immediate attention. Even though climatological studies have been done in the past in the Indian Ocean encompassing the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal [16¨C20], a comparative analysis of the changing Sea Surface Temperature (SST) pattern the gulfs of Arabian Sea
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijocean/2013/501602/