Sediment resuspension and related increases in turbidity in shallow coastal bays are strongly controlled by local bed properties. However, knowledge of bed properties in coastal bays is typically sparse at best. In this study, we developed a method to estimate the spatial distribution of bed properties in shallow coastal bays using a combination of bed sediment measurements and residence time calculations that requires neither extensive dedicated modeling nor extensive sampling. We found a strong relationship between water residence times derived from a coastal hydrodynamic model and observed bed grain size fractions in a system of coastal bays and used that relationship to transform maps of residence time to maps of grain size fractions throughout the bays. Because grain‐size fractions are related to other bed properties such as organic fraction, permeability and cohesion, these maps provide valuable information for habitat studies as well as morphodynamic modeling. We used our maps of grain size distributions to initialize a 2‐month‐long model simulation of currents, waves and suspended sediment forced with measured wind and tides. Spatial variations in suspended sediment concentration (SSC) reflected spatial gradients in sand and mud abundance in the bed. Lower SSC in sandier regions of the bays, near barrier islands and inlets, resulted in higher benthic light availability but lower sediment supply for deposition on back‐barrier marshes. Higher SSC in more landward, muddier regions resulted in greater light attenuation and sediment availability for deposition on mainland fringing marshes. The proposed methodology facilitates quantification of these bed‐dependent spatial variations in SSC.

In the Bay of Bengal, the warm, dry boreal spring concludes with the onset of the summer monsoon and accompanying southwesterly winds, heavy rains, and variable air-sea fluxes. Here, we summarize the 2018 monsoon onset using observations collected through the multinational Monsoon Intraseasonal Oscillations in the Bay of Bengal (MISO-BoB) program between the US, India, and Sri Lanka. MISO-BoB aims to improve understanding of monsoon intraseasonal variability, and the 2018 field effort captured the coupled air-sea response during a transition from active-to-break conditions in the central BoB. The active phase of the ~20-day research cruise was characterized by warm sea surface temperature (SST > 30°C), cold atmospheric outflows with intermittent heavy rainfall, and increasing winds (from 2 to 15 m s−1). Accumulated rainfall exceeded 200 mm with 90% of precipitation occurring during the first week. The following break period was both dry and clear, with persistent 10−12 m s−1 wind and evaporation of 0.2 mm h−1. The evolving environmental state included a deepening ocean mixed layer (from ~20 to 50 m), cooling SST (by ~ 1°C), and warming/drying of the lower to mid-troposphere. Local atmospheric development was consistent with phasing of the large-scale intraseasonal oscillation. The upper ocean stores significant heat in the BoB, enough to maintain SST above 29°C despite cooling by surface fluxes and ocean mixing. Comparison with reanalysis indicates biases in air-sea fluxes, which may be related to overly cool prescribed SST. Resolution of such biases offers a path toward improved forecasting of transition periods in the monsoon.

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Abstract. The existence of a seasonally varying undercurrent along 8 • N off the east coast of Sri Lanka is inferred from shipboard hydrography, Argo floats, glider measurements, and two ocean general circulation model simulations. Together, they reveal an undercurrent below 100-200 m flowing in the opposite direction to the surface current, which is most pronounced during boreal spring and summer and switches direction between these two seasons. The volume transport of the undercurrent (200-1000 m layer) can be more than 10 Sv in either direction, exceeding the transport of 1-6 Sv carried by the surface current (0-200 m layer). The undercurrent transports relatively fresher water southward during spring, while it advects more saline water northward along the east coast of Sri Lanka during summer. Although the undercurrent is potentially a pathway of salt exchange between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, the observations and the ocean general circulation models suggest that the salinity contrast between seasons and between the boundary current and interior is less than 0.09 in the subsurface layer, suggesting a small salt transport by the undercurrent of less than 4 % of the salinity deficit in the Bay of Bengal.

Variability of the flow across the Solomon Sea's southern entrance was examined using end point subsurface moorings and seafloor pressure sensors, reconstructed velocity profiles based on satellite‐derived surface velocity and bottom pressure‐derived subsurface velocity, and 1993–2017 proxy volume transport based on satellite altimetry. The reconstructed velocity correctly represents the fluctuating surface flow and subsurface core providing a high‐frequency continuous observing system for this sea. The mean equatorward volume transport over 0‐ to 500‐m depth layer is 15.2 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3/s) during July 2012 to May 2017. The measurements resolve the full spectrum of the volume transport including energetic subseasonal variability that fluctuates by as much as 25 Sv over one week. At low‐frequency timescales, the study finds that linear Rossby waves forced by Ekman pumping in the interior of the Pacific influence not only seasonal fluctuations as found by previous studies but also interannual variability. As found previously, the El Niño–Southern Oscillation highly influences interannual volume transport. During the 2015/2016 El Niño, observations show the seasonal cycle to be suppressed from the second half of 2014, prior to the mature phase of the El Niño, to September 2016 along with an increase in across‐transect transport. At subseasonal timescales, local Ekman pumping and remote wind stress curl are responsible for a third of the subseasonal variance. The study highlights the importance of high‐frequency observations at the southern entrance of the Solomon Sea and the ability of a linear Rossby model to represent the low‐frequency variability of the transport.