Effect of Temperature and Salinity on Sound Speed in the Central Arabian Sea

ABSTRACT

Sound speed in the oceans depends on temperature, salinity, and pressure and has large seasonal and spatial variations. Since temperature and salinity variations are large compared to pressure, we studied the relative importance of these two parameters on sound speed by analyzing the hourly profiles for one year (16 October 1994 – 22 October 1995) up to 250 m depth from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution mooring in the central Arabian Sea (15.5° N, 61.5° E). We replaced the mooring temperature and salinity profiles with the climatological values and observed that the impact of temperature change is significant compared to that of salinity. This study provides an opportunity to utilise relatively more number of temperature measurements from XBT (expendable bathy thermograph) along with climatological salinities in the central Arabian Sea.