Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
rivers is an additional source of freshwater in the eastern Indian Ocean. The
barrier layer can also be important in dynamics of coastal regions with river
run-off (like the Bay of Bengal) and in the marginal polar seas under
conditions of ice melting.
The existence of the barrier layer plays a key role in the onset of El Niño,
through a complex process that involves ocean vertical mixing, sea surface
temperature, wind stress, freshwater flux, and large-scale ocean-atmosphere
dynamics (Lukas and Lindstrom, 1991; Webster and Lukas, 1992; Vialard
and Delecluse, 1998; Maes et al., 2002). The barrier layer favors the
maintenance and displacement of the western Pacific warm pool into the
central Pacific by isolating the mixed layer from entrainment cooling at
depth and by confining the momentum of westerly wind events to a shallow
mixed layer.
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