Salinity variability in the Arabian Sea

Argo floats deployed in the Arabian Sea provided an opportunity to look at the temporal variability of the core‐depth of Arabian Sea High Salinity Water mass (ASHSW) at three locations in the north, central and southern Arabian Sea. These three locations show distinctly different variability patterns. At the northern location we see a prominent semi‐annual cycle, whereas at the central location an annual cycle dominates. Comparison with TOPEX/JASON sea level data shows that this difference can be attributed to the influence of Rossby waves at the central location. In the southern Arabian Sea the variability in core depth is also dominated by an annual‐mode, but there are 2 high frequency components near the Madden‐Julian Oscillation frequencies. Thus the salinity distribution in the Arabian Sea apparently is influenced by both remote forcing and ocean atmospheric coupling.