Coastal Upwelling Activity along the southwest coast of

India
K. Muni Krishna

Dept of Meteorology and Oceanography, Andhra University

Visakhapatnam, India – 530 003
E-mail: kailasam15@yahoo.co.in

Abstract: High primary productivity along the southwest coast of India is usually related to coastal upwelling activity
that injects nutrients into the euphotic zone in response to prevailing longshore winds (from northwest to north). The
upwelling process has maximum intensity from June to September, with the coastal upwelling index varying from 20 to
260 m3/s per 100 m of coastline. Along the entire coast of peninsula, the upwelling intensity changes in accordance with
local wind conditions and bottom topography. I have identified the seasonal and synoptic variability of upwelling
signatures along the coast using monthly and weekly sea surface temperature (SST) distributions obtained from remote
sensing imagery from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer, Sea Winds from QuikSCAT and PFEL coastal
upwelling indices in the period 1999-2003. seasonal features and latitudinal variability of the upwelling-related processes
along the coast have been described, using the coastal upwelling indices, calculating according to the PFEL methodology.
It is confirmed that the upwelling intensity in the southern portion of the peninsula coast and remote sensing methods.
Key words: Coastal upwelling, Southwest coast, wind stress, sea surface temperature.

INTRODUCTION
The southwest coast of India is part of the West India coastal current system region, one of the world’s most
productive areas due to coastal upwelling phenomena (Banse, 1959 and 1968; Darbyshire, 1967; Johannessen et al.,
1981; Jensen., 2007; Lathipha and Murthy, 1985; Longhurst and Wooster, 1990; Maheswaran, 2000; Muni Krishna,
2007 & 2008; Muni Krishna and Ramalingeswara Rao, 2008; Rao et al., 2004; Sharma, 1978). The interchange of
waters between the coastal zone and the open sea is a crucial area of research for determining abiotic conditions of
coastal ecosystem evolution. It is common to knowledge that the high productivity on the shelf of southwest coast of
India is closely related to coastal upwelling activity. This highly fluctuating process is developed when the
equatorward wind, which forces upwelling, blows persistently along the coast, forming the Ekman average offshore
transport (based on wind stress and Coriolis force). Surface water, which moves away from the southwest coast, is
replaced by cooler saltier water, which comes from depths to 100m, bringing nutrients to the surface layer.
Upwelling affects all physical parameters of seawater, including the thermohaline structure and three-dimensional
circulation forming the environmental conditions favorable for ecosystem development. Although vertically
integrated Ekman transport is perpendicular to the wind direction, in the upper layer the Ekman spiral provides
moderate equatorward longshore transport. At the same time, upwelling forces the vertical dispersion and superficial
transport of plankton and larvae due to the divergence of the rising waters. The existence of wind-forced, cross-shelf
circulation has been confirmed by numerical modeling (Rao et al., 2004). It was shown that the wind stress curl
expands the upwelling front offshore and alters the thickness of the upper layer (Enrique and Friehe, 1995).
The more convenient practical methods for calculating the upwelling activity indices developed by Bakun
(1973). According to this approach, values of coastal upwelling indices (CUI) are calculated as a magnitude of the
offshore transport component, normal to the local coastline orientation (m3/s/100m of coastline). The CUI expressed
in terms of Ekman transport, is consider a quantitative index of the amount of water moving offshore, and integrally
represent all upwelling-forced atmospheric and hydrodynamic processes. So the value of CUI determines how much
water goes offshore. The primary purpose of this paper is to update our knowledge of the principal local upwelling
areas in the southwest coast of India (Fig 1) duringATTACHMENT
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ATTACHMENT II
 FIGURE 1, Map of the southwest coast of India, showing main coastal stations.

DATA AND METHODS

To evaluate seasonal and interannual variability of upwelling-related processes along the southwest coast of
India, the daily and monthly 1° mesh wind and wind stress data, as well as the averaged six-hourly and monthly CUI
series, were used for the study period (1999-2003). All these data, calculated from the FNMOC (U.S. Navy’s Fleet
Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center) sea level pressure fields, are provided on the PFEL website
(www.pfer.noaa.gov) for all researchers. Data from the Sea Winds scatterometer, installed on the QuikSCAT
satellite, were obtained for July 1999 through December 2003 to compare the wind data with the PFEL set. The Sea
Winds scanning microwave radar, using the backscattered signal from the roughness of sea surface, provides the
10m wind field with an accuracy of about of 1 m in speed and about 20° in direction (Freilich and Dunbar, 1999).
The data sets provided by QuikSCAT are currently available in different formats and exist from 19 July 1999 to the
present on a 0.25° x 0.25° global grid with 6-hour time resolution. To define the near shore upwelling regions along
the coast of the southwest coast of India, the averaged monthly and weekly SST distributions were obtained. These
charts were developed from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) infrared images provided by
NOAA. The AVHRR sensor senses the earth’s surface with a nadir resolution of 1.1 km, transmitting the data to
reception stations on land. Calculating of the spectra was done using the StatGraph software.

RESULTS
The primary forcing mechanism that effects upwelling circulation is wind stress. Consequently, the spatial and
temporal variability of the coastal wind fields is an important component of the coastal circulation study. Usually,
the wind stress is calculated from each wind vector maintaining its direction, according to the classic quadratic
relation (Bakun, 1973). The wind stress field has the same directional pattern, varying in intensity only, and,
sometimes it is more convenient to analyze the wind stress data. Figure 2 shows the distribution of the averaged
monthly wind stress along the southwest coast of India for the June-September, 2000. The highest values of
upwelling-favorable stress were observed in the southern part of the area in June, and slightly lower one in
September. In May and, to a lesser degree, in September, wind forcing maintains its direction along the whole coast,
decreasing its intensity toward the peninsula’s tip. In August, the wind stress vectors in the southern part are directed
offshore decreasing upwelling processes.
Interannual variability of the averaged monthly CUI during the period from January 1990 to December 2003 is
shown in Figure 3. The indices for the latitudes of the Trivendrum, Cochin and Calicut, have been calculated
according to the local coastline orientation. The intensification of the summer upwelling activity toward Trivendrum
latitudes is evident; average CUI magnitudes for the latitude on average (about 100 m3/s per 100m of coastal line)
for the period June through September. Figure 4 shows the spectra of the average monthly CUI for three locations
on the coast of peninsula (8°N, 10°N, and 11°N). Spectra calculated using entire time series from 1 January 1990
through 31 December 2003 show that the frequency ranges from 0.1 to 0.2 cycles/day (corresponding to periods

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from 5 to 10 days) and has a number of significant energy peaks. The value of spectral density decreased 50% from
south to the north.

FIGURE 2, Sea surface wind stress (N/m²) off southwest coast of India during monsoon (JJAS) 2000.

FIGURE 3, Average monthly coastal upwelling indices for various coastal stations from January 1990 to December 2003. Units
are metric tons per second per 100 m coastline

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 FIGURE 4, Spectra of the averaged daily coastal upwelling indices for three regions along the southwest coast of India.

CONCLUSIONS
The key environmental parameter driving the upwelling is wind, so the spatial resolution of the wind plays a
significant role in CUI calculations. Seasonal features and latitudinal variability of the upwelling-related processes
along the coast of the southwest coast of India have been described, using the coastal upwelling indices, calculated
according to the PFEL methodology. It is confirmed that the upwelling intensity in the southern portion of the
peninsula coast and remote sensing methods. In many cases, the most useful instrument for understanding upwelling
behavior is numerical modeling based in experimental data.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank the PFEL, NMFS-NOAA, for providing upwelling related data, and NASA’s Physical Oceanography
Distributed Active Archive Centre at the Jet Population Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, for the
Sea Winds (QuikSCAT) data.

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