Annual and Seasonal Mean Net Evaporation Rates of the Red Sea Water during Jan 1958 - Dec 2007

Abstract

Data set including sea level, temperature, salinity, and current from Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) is used in this study to estimate the mean net annually and seasonally evaporation rates. Then wind data is used to examine its impact on the evaporation. This work calculated the seasonal and annual evaporation rates based on assumption of that there is no net mass transport (balanced). Hence, the difference in the transport supposed to be equal to the water that has evaporated. Therefore data of water in-flow and out-flow used to examine the net mass transport with the obtained evaporation rate. Results revealed that the net annual mean evap- oration was 1.24 m/yr and the net seasonal mean was 1.3 m/yr and the evaporation rate in winter months was permanently higher than summer and autumn with min- imum value in August. The annual wind impact is masked but, it is clearer for the monthly, particularly in June and October. The monthly water exchange through Bab al-Mandeb Strait accompanied the monthly evaporation in its fluctuations with high rates of net-flow in winter and low rates in summer and exactly such as the evaporation the minimum net transport found in August. Hence, we can assume that the evaporation exerts a great influence in the Red Sea circulation.