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Sea Surface Temperature

Sea surface temperature (SST) data were obtained from GISST (Global Sea Ice and Sea Surface temperature). More information on the data sets can be found here.

Climatology of SST and Upwelling
Plotted in figure 1a-l is the climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea. One can clearly see how two cold spots appear in June: one along the Coast of Somalia and another one along the coast of Oman. These are the upwelling areas in the Arabian Sea which are due to the monsoon winds. It reaches its highest point in August weakens again in September. There are hypothesis that the upwelling is responsible for the cloud formations over Dhofar. However, it can be seen form the pictures that the upwelling zone along the coast of Oman reaches usually until 55 degree East only and it is thus located downstream of Dhofar. It seems therefore unlikely that the cold upwelling waters are a direct source of the clouds in Dhofar. However an indirect interaction for example deviation of winds is possible and should be investigated in the future.
The process of upwelling is explained in more detail in the literature review on the climate in Oman.

Changing SST
Figure 2a and 2b show the time-series of SST over the last century. Clearly this dataset shows that SST have been rising in the Arabian Sea during the last 100 years. A statistical trend analysis for the SST in the region just offshore of Salalah showed that SST in 1901-1930 was significantly lower than the SST from 1971-2000.

figure 1a: January Climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea calculated for the period 1971-1999	figure 1b: February Climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea calculated for the period 1971-1999
figure 1c: March Climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea calculated for the period 1971-1999	figure 1d: April Climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea calculated for the period 1971-1999
figure 1e: May Climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea calculated for the period 1971-1999	figure 1f: June Climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea calculated for the period 1971-1999
figure 1g: July Climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea calculated for the period 1971-1999	figure 1h: August Climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea calculated for the period 1971-1999
figure 1i: September Climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea calculated for the period 1971-1999	figure 1j: October Climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea calculated for the period 1971-1999
figure 1k: November Climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea calculated for the period 1971-1999	figure 1l: December Climatology of SST in the Arabian Sea calculated for the period 1971-1999

figure 2a: time series of SST in the Arabian Sea plotted along latitude 17 degree North for longitudes 20degree East to 80 degree East. The green areas are covered with land.

figure 2b: time series of SST in the Arabian Sea plotted along longitude 54 degree North for latitudes 20 degree South to 40 degree North. The green areas are covered with land.