Dataset: ALFA data - Western Arabian Sea

Advanced Laser Fluorescence Analyzer (ALFA) data from the western Arabian Sea acquired on the R/V Roger Ravelle in June 2023. We participated in the Indo-US EXAMSAT-PILOT cruise undertaken in the western Arabian Sea in May - June 2023. EXAMSAT is a collaborative Indo-US field campaign funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India and the Office of Naval Research, focused on the acquisition of contemporary oceanographic and atmospheric datasets deemed critical for improving the predictive skills of operational monsoon models. During the pre-monsoon season, akin to the warm pool that forms in the Western Equatorial Indian Ocean, there is a warm pool that forms in the Eastern Arabian Sea situated roughly west of the coast of Kerala. Our overarching objectives were two fold: 1) to understand whether phytoplankton communities of the warm pool were significantly different from those within the warm pool and from the surrounding waters and 2) whether there is a fundamental shift in phytoplankton functional types and their biomass following the onset of the summer monsoon. During the cruise our study area came under the influence of cyclone Biparjoy which led to a fundamental shift in phytoplankton functional types and biomass.