Evidence of Upwelling along Peninsular Malaysia during Southwest Monsoon

Abstract

Upwelling off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia (PM) was detected from recent cruise data collected during the southwest monsoon. Thermocline lifting was observed at 104˚E from a number of parallel transects. To confirm the presence of upwelling, satellite remote sensing data were used, and numerical model experiments were conducted. A cooler sea-surface temperature along the coast was spotted from both in-situ and satellite data while upward movement from the model agreed with field data. The southwesterly wind that blows along PM from June to September is believed to be the important mechanism that contributed to this upwelling through an Ekman dynamics process.