Seasonal and intraseasonal variations of the surface Taiwan Warm Current

To study seasonal and intraseasonal variations of the Taiwan Warm Current (TWC) in detail Rotated Empirical Orthogonal Function (REOF) and Extended Associate Pattern Analysis (EAPA) are jointly adopted with daily sea surface salinity (SSS), sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface height (SSH) datasets covering 1126 days from American Navy Experimental Real-Time East Asian Seas Ocean Nowcast System in the present paper. Results show that the first and second REOFs of SST in the southern East China Sea (SECS) account for 50.8% and 39.8% of the total variance. The surface TWC contains persistent (multi-year mean), seasonal and intraseasonal components. The persistent one mainly inosculates with the Kuroshio but the seasonal and intraseasonal ones are usually active only on the continental shelf. Its persistent component is produced by inertial flow of the Kuroshio, however its seasonal and intraseasonal ones seems coming from seasonal and intraseasonal oscillations of monsoon force. The seasonal one reaches its maximum in late summer,lasting about four months and the intraseasonal one takes place at any seasons, lasting more than 40 days.     

Current observations in the southern Yellow Sea in summer

Current data from three moored Acoustic Doppler Profilers (ADPs) deployed in the southern Yellow Sea at sites A (1-24.17°E, 34.82°N), B (122.82°E, 35.65°N) in summer 2001 and site C (120.85°E, 34.99°N) in summer 2003 were analyzed in this paper. Features of the tidal and residual currents were studied with rotary spectral and cross-spectral methods. Main achievements were as follows: 1) Tides dominated the currents. At sites A and B, the semidiurnal tidal current was basically homogeneous in the whole depth, taking a clockwise rotation at site A, and near-rectilinear counterclockwise rotation at site B; while the diurnal tidal current was strong and clockwise near the surface, but decreased and turned counterclockwise with depth; at site C, semidiurnal tidal current dominated and diurnal current took the second, both of which were counterclockwise and vertically homogeneous. Inertial motion contributed to the clockwise component of diurnal fluctuations; 2) The 3-5d fluctuation of residual current w     

Surface circulation patterns observed by drifters in the Yellow Sea in summer of 2001, 2002 and 2003

In summer of 2001, 2002 and 2003, ten, six and seventeen satellite-tracked surface drifters with drogues centered at 15 and 4 m were deployed, respectively, in the southern Yellow Sea (YS). 23 drifters of them transmitted useful data of at least 30 days. The wind-driven component of the drift was removed from the original drift velocity of drifters. The wind data used are from NCEP (National Center for Environmental Prediction), USA.Trajectories and drift velocities of the 23 drifters depicted the upper circulation structure in the southern YS. There exists an anti-cyclonic eddy with a mean speed and radius of 0.063 m/s and 50km in the central southern YS, whose center lingered within 35.3-36.0°N / 123.5-124.0°E. Showed by 6 drifters, a basin-scale elliptic cyclonic gyre with a mean speed of 0.114 m/s, long and short radius of 250 and 200 km surrounds the anti-cyclonic eddy. In the southwestern part of the southern YS has obvious frontal eddy activities within about 100 km with a mean speed about 0.076     

Numerical Study of Water and Suspended Matter Exchange Between the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea

INTRODUCTIONTheYellowSeaandtheEastChinaSea (ECS)aremarginalseasofthenorthwestPacificandhaveexpansivecontinentalshelves .TheuniqueandstrikingfeaturesoftheYellowSeaandtheECSarethattheyhavestrongtidalcurrent;aresubjecttostrongmonsooninfluence ;andreceiveinflowfromthebiggestriverinChina ,theChangjiangRiver ;andthatthefamouswesternboundarycurrent,theKuroshio ,passesthroughtheECS ,withitsbranchesintrudingupwardintothecontinentalshelfareas.Generallyspeaking ,thewaterexchangecapacityofthe…     

A numerical study on seasonal variations of the Taiwan Warm Current

Princeton Ocean Model (POM) is employed to investigate the Taiwan Warm Current (TWC) and its seasonal variations. Results show that the TWC exhibits pronounced seasonal variations in its sources, strength and flow patterns. In summer, the TWC flows northeast in straight way and reaches around 32°N; it comes mainly from the Taiwan Strait, while its lower part is from the shelf-intrusion of the Kuroshio subsurface water (KSSW). In winter, coming mainly from the shelf-intrusion of the Kuroshio northeast of Taiwan, the TWC flows northward in a winding way and reaches up around 30°N. The Kuroshio intrusion also has distinct seasonal patterns. The shelf-intrusion of KSSW by upwelling is almost the same in four seasons with a little difference in strength; it is a persistent source of the TWC. However, Kuroshio surface water (KSW) can not intrude onto the shelf in summer, while in winter the intrusion of KSW always occurs. Additional experiments were conducted to examine effects of winds and transport through     

Interannual variations of North Equatorial Current transport in the Pacific Ocean during two types of El Niño

Interannual variations of Pacific North Equatorial Current (NEC) transport during eastern-Pacific El Niños (EP-El Niños) and central-Pacific El Niños (CP-El Niños) are investigated by composite analysis with European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast Ocean Analysis/Reanalysis System 3. During EP-El Niño, NEC transport shows significant positive anomalies from the developing to decay phases, with the largest anomalies around the mature phase. During CP-El Niño, however, the NEC transport only shows positive anomalies before the mature phase, with much weaker anomalies than those during EP-El Niño. The NEC transport variations are strongly associated with variations of the tropical gyre and wind forcing in the tropical North Pacific. During EP-El Niño, strong westerly wind anomalies and positive wind stress curl anomalies in the tropical North Pacific induce local upward Ekman pumping and westward-propagating upwelling Rossby waves in the ocean, lowering the sea surface height and generating a cyclonic gyre anomaly in the western tropical Pacific. During CP-El Niño, however, strength of the wind and associated Ekman pumping velocity are very weak. Negative sea surface height and cyclonic flow anomalies are slightly north of those during EP El Niño.     

热带印度洋Rossby波的基本特征

Long wavelength baroclinic oceanic Rossby waves are of interest because they are the main mechanism of energy transfer among the oceanic basins as the rotating fluid adjusts under the forcing of gravity and buoyancy,They play an important role in dynamics and thermodynamics in the ocean.The signature of them is evident from the altimeter measurements.Sea surface beight derived from the multiple ocean satellite altimeter missions over 1993～2008 is analyzed to systematically investigate the characteristics of the Rossby waves in the tropical Indian Ocean,by jointly adopting 2D-FFT,2D-Radon Transform,Complex Empirical Orthogonal Function and the classic linear theory methods.Results are as follows.The energy of Rossby wave is mainly concentrated between 5°S～18°S.Annual Rossby wave can be observed all over the whole badin,whereas semi-annual Rossby wave can bw only detected in the equatorial area, and inter-annual Rossby wave in the off-equatorial region.The phase speeds of Rossby waves detected from altimeter satellites are basically in agreement with the calculation based on the classic linear theory, but the former are some slower(faster) north(south)of 15°S than the later,Furthemore,it is indicated from the CEOF analysis that the annual Rossby waves is apparent in the Bay of Bengal,Arabian Sea ,and the open south Indian Ocean,whereas inter-annual Rossby wave mainly presents in the south Indian Ocean ,and eastward Kelvin wave is dominant along equator.     

PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE FORMATION MECHANISM OF COUNTER WESTERN BOUNDARY UNDERCURRENTS BELOW THE THERMOCLINE——A CONCEPTUAL MODEL

ＩＮＴＲＯＤＵＣＴＩＯＮＴｈｅｗｅｓｔｅｒｎｂｏｕｎｄａｒｙｃｕｒｒｅｎｔｓ(ＷＢＣ),ｃｏｕｎｔｅｒｕｎｄｅｒｃｕｒｒｅｎｔｓｏｂｓｅｒｖｅｄｂｅｌｏｗｔｈｅｔｈｅｒｍｏｃｌｉｎｅｉｎｃｌｕｄｅｔｈｅＭｉｎｄａｎａｏＵｎｄｅｒｃｕｒｒｅｎｔ(ＭＵＣ)ｂｅｎｅａｔｈｔｈｅＭｉｎｄａｎａｏＣｕｒｒｅｎｔ(ＭＣ)(ＨｕａｎｄＣｕｉ,1989,1991;ＷａｎｇａｎｄＨｕ,1998ａ,ｂ;Ｗａｎｇｅｔａｌ.,1998)(Ｆｉｇ.1ａ),ｔｈｅｓｏｕｔｈｗａｒｄｆｌｏｗｂｅｌｏｗｔｈｅＫｕｒｏｓｈｉｏ(ｈｅｒｅｉｎａｆｔｅｒ,ＫＵＣ)(Ｈｕａｎ…     

RESPONSE OF THE EQUATORIAL WESTERN PACIFIC THERMOHALINE STRUCTURE TO WIND VARIATION

During the Global Weather Experiment oceanographic measurements were recorded during winter and summer in the western Pacific region 5°S-5°N,160°E-175°E. The variations of the upper ocean temperature and salinity fields were produced by the large seasonal and spatial wind fluctuations. The vertical temperature structure of the thermocline at the equator, the meridional slope of the thermocline south of the equator, and the northward penetration of high salinity water were related to the direction and intensity of the zonal wind-stress.