Annual mean statistics of the surface fluxes of the tropical Indian Ocean

The computed long-term annual mean and intramonthly variances of air and sea surface temperature, wind stress, effective radiation at the surface, heat gain over the ocean and the total heat loss for the tropical Indian Ocean between 30 °N and 30 °S are presented. These estimates, which are based on about one million weather reports for the period 1948–1972, indicate a mean annual meridional heat transport in agreement with previous estimates in direction though different in magnitude. The annual mean E-P chart shows that the Bay of Bengal region is highly conducive to large-scale convergence.