Ocean surface circulation in strait of malacca using satellite altimeter and low cost GPS-tracked drifting buoys

The sea surface circulation pattern over the Strait of Malacca during Northeast Monsoon (NE) and Southwest Monsoon (SW) were derived using multi-year averaged sea level anomaly from altimetric data. This altimetric data has been derived using multi-mission satellite altimeter TOPEX, ERS-1, ERS-2, JASON-1, ENVISAT, JASON-2, CryoSAT-2 and SARAL for the period of twenty-three years (1993 to 2015). In general, the surface current pattern during Northeast Monsoon and Southwest Monsoon are rather complex than inter-monsoon. Number of eddies were found in seasonal surface circulation of the studied region. During the first inter-monsoon (April), there was an anti-cyclonic eddy formed near the northern part of Sumatra centered at (~ 6N, 97.5 E). Meanwhile, a cyclonic eddy formed at the central region of Malacca Strait centered at (~ 5.5N, 99.5 E) during SW Monsoon and the eddy still existed during second inter-monsoon (October) but weaker than previous monsoon. The pattern of the surface current during April was almost consistent with the trajectories of surface drifter developed in this study.