Oceanography of Red Sea
The oceanography of the ‘Red Sea’ is such that it lies amidst three regions: semi-desert, desert, and arid land. The principal reasons behind the enhancement of ‘Reef Systems’ along the sides of ‘Red Sea’ are superb pattern of water circulation and greater depths. The water mass of Red Sea has the tendency to get exchanged with the ‘Gulf of Aden’, ‘Indian Ocean’, and ‘Arabian Sea’. The physical factors of this type result in the reduction in High Salinity which was caused due to evaporation, and hot water in the Southern part and relatively cold water in the Northern part.
Climate
The unusual climate of Red Sea results due to two diverse monsoon seasons: the south westerlies and the north easterlies. The reason behind the occurrence of monsoon winds is the discrepancy in heating between sea and land surface. Extremely soaring surface temperatures attached with soaring salinities makes the Red Sea figure amongst the saltiest and the hottest seawater bodies all over the world. The average temperature of surface water at the time of summer is around 26 degree Celsius (79 degree Fahrenheit) in the northern side and 30 degree Celsius (86 degree Fahrenheit) in the southern side. The variation in winter is around 2 degree Celsius (3.6 degree Fahrenheit). The average temperature of water on a whole is around 22 degree Celsius (72 degree Fahrenheit).
The rainfall above Red Sea, along with its coasts ranges between 0.06 m and 1 m every year. This rain is normally in the form of drizzles coupled with thunderstorms. Dust storms also occur occasionally. Red sea hardly gets any supply of ‘fresh water’. Due to this, the rate of evaporation is as great as 205 centimeters, i.e 81 inches/year.
Salinity
The salinity of Red Sea ranges from 3.6 to 3.8%. This shows that it is amongst the most brackish water bodies of the world. This is attributed to wind stress and evaporation.
Tidal Range
Generally, tide ranges from 0.6 m in the northern side, adjoining the starting point of ‘Gulf of Suez’ to 0.9 m in the southern part adjoining the ‘Gulf of Aden’. However, it keeps on fluctuating between 0.2 m and 0.3 m away from nodal point. That’s why; the Jeddah area (Central Red Sea) is almost tide less. This results in inundation of coastal sabkhas during the high tide.
Current
In Red Sea, spatial and temporal current variations go low to the extent of 1.6 ft (0.5 m). They are mostly governed by wind. During the summer, north-west winds perform the task of driving the surface water to the south for around 4 months at velocity of around 15-20 cm/s, whereas during the winter, flow gets reversed, thereby resulting in water inflow from ‘Gulf of Aden’ into Red Sea.
Wind Regime
The Red sea’s northern part is highly dominated by the persistent NW winds. The speeds range from 7 Km/hr to 12 Km/hr. The remaining part is greatly influenced by seasonally variable and regular winds. The ‘Wind regime’ is peculiarized by both- regional and seasonal variations in directions and speed. The average speed usually increases northward.
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