"Although in Tahle 2^ showing the data for 1° longitudinal 

 sections running from north to south, the differences between the 

 Arabian side and Persian side are eliminated, one can observe the 

 following facts about the yearly course: Accordingly, in both 

 gulfs the lowest temperatures occur in February, while in the 

 Persian Gulf and in the Strait of Hormuz, the highest occur in 

 August. This warming is thus In agreement with the general warm- 

 ing applicable to greater water surfaces. A different situation 

 presents itself in the Gulf of Oman where in the northwestern 

 part (the section between 57° to 58° E.) the maximum of 31.0° C. 

 is reached in July, while in other sections located farther to 

 the east maximums of 29 ,8° C, and 28.7° C ^.re attained in June; 

 the most easterly section has, in addition, a secondary maximum 

 of 28.1°C. in October, while the secondary minimum (27.6° C.) 

 occurs in September. This is analogous to the typical Indian 

 Ocean conditions: May and June are the warmest months in the 

 western Indian Ocean, constituting a transitional period between 

 the two monsoons. Then, with the rainy stormy Southwest Monsoon 

 comes a cooling over the northern Arabian sea. The effect of this 

 cooling period ends only in October when this wind diminishes. Air 

 temperatures follow similar patterns, 



"Noteworthy are the combined absolute extremes of water tem- 

 perature shown at the bottom of Table 2 . The maximums definitely 

 exceed 31° C., are up to 33° C. in the Gulf of Oman, up to 3^°C. in 

 the Strait of Hormuz, and even up to 36.0° C. in the Persian Gulf, 

 This unusually high water temperature has been observed halfway 

 between Lingeh and Bahrein about 25 sea miles off the Persian 

 coast in mid-August at k p.m. I The absolute minimum observed up 

 to now in mid-January not far from the mouth of the Schatt was 

 12.3°C. 



"2. Salinity ( Table l ) . In two earlier reports prepared by 

 Schott ( Reference 5 ) and Schulz ( Reference 7 )^ i"b was shown on the 

 basis of recent salinity observations that in the Persian Gulf the 

 surface water along the northern half of the Persian coast reaches 

 and exceeds k-O/L salinity and that there is a noticeable fluctua- 

 tion of salinity during the year, so that a minimimi occurs in early 

 summer and a maximum in late fall and winter. Inasmuch as the col- 

 lection of surface water samples is now more abundant, one can see 

 the actual conditions more clearly. Throughout the entire year, 

 there is an area in the Persian Gulf where the salinity exceeds 

 hoXc reaching its greatest expansion in winter between the islands 

 west of Lingeh and almost touching the Qatar Peninsula, and -ftp to 

 the northeast corner of the Gulf north of Bushire where salinities 

 up to UO.5^ have been observed. This area shrinks during spring 

 and early summer to such an extent that in May and June the kO .oXo 

 isohaline encloses only a narrow strip off Bushire in the direction 

 of the Shatt, approximately where the UO.5^ isohaline lies in 

 February, The late-summer and fall months seem to be in agreement 



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