Response of OceanSat II scatterometer winds in the Bay of Bengal circulation

Surface wind is one of the major forcing factors in any ocean circulation model. The response of satellite-derived OceanSat II scatterometer (OSCAT) winds during spring (February and March) 2010 in the Bay of Bengal (BOB) surface circulation is described in this study. Wind stress is calculated from wind speed derived from OSCAT by the bulk-aerodynamic formula. The Regional Ocean Modeling System is used in this study because it is a free-surface, terrain-following, primitive-equations ocean model widely used by the scientific community for a diverse range of applications. The model is used after a climatological simulation with Comprehensive Ocean–Atmosphere Data Set (COADS) forcing when the model simulation reached the annual cycle. The paper also carried out a comparative study of National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) forcing over the same time period. The comparison of model-simulated surface temperature to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sea surface temperature (SST) indicates that meso-scale features in the BOB are resolved due to the finer resolution of this model. Comparisons of water mass characteristics to the available ARGO floats show good agreement in different locations within the BOB. This study confirms the usefulness of OSCAT winds in simulating the meso-scale feature in the BOB.