An N-shape thermal front in the western South Yellow Sea in winter |
| |
Authors: | WANG Fan LIU Chuanyu |
| |
Institution: | [1]Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China [2]Key Laboratory of Circulation and Waves, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China [3]Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China |
| |
Abstract: | An N-shape thermal front in the western South Yellow Sea (YS) in winter was detected using Advanced Very High Resolution Radiation
(AVHRR) Sea Surface Temperature data and in-situ observations with a merged front-detecting method. The front, which exists
from late October through early March, consists of western and eastern wings extending roughly along the northeast-southwest
isobaths with a southeastward middle segment across the 20–50 m isobaths. There are north and south inflexions connecting
the middle segment with the western and eastern wings, respectively. The middle segment gradually moves southwestward from
November through February with its length increasing from 62 km to 107 km and the southern inflexion moving from 36.2°N to
35.3°N. A cold tongue is found to coexist with the N-shape front, and is carried by the coastal jet penetrating southward
from the tip of the Shandong Peninsula into the western South YS as revealed by a numerical simulation. After departing from
the coast, the jet flows as an anti-cyclonic recirculation below 10 m depth, trapping warmer water originally carried by the
compensating Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC). A northwestward flowing branch of the YSWC is also found on the lowest level
south of the front. The N-shape front initially forms between the cold tongue and warm water involved in the subsurface anti-cyclonical
recirculation and extends upwards to the surface through vertical advection and mixing. Correlation analyses reveal that northerly
and easterly winds tend to be favorable to the formation and extension of the N-shape front probably through strengthening
of the coastal jet and shifting the YSWC pathway eastward, respectively. |
| |
Keywords: | N-shape front South Yellow Sea coastal jet Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) |
本文献已被 维普 万方数据 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|