Vorticity budget study on the seasonal upper circulation in the northern South China Sea from altimetry data and a numerical model

Based on the EOF analyses of Absolute Dynamic Topography satellite data,it is found that,in summer,the northern South China Sea(SCS) is dominated by an anticyclonic gyre whilst by a cyclonic one in winter.A connected single-layer and two-layer model is employed here to investigate the dynamic mechanism of the circulation in the northern SCS.Numerical experiments show that the nonlinear term,the pressure torque and the planetary vorticity advection play important roles in the circulation of the northern SCS,whilst the contribution by seasonal wind stress curl is local and limited.Only a small part of the Kuroshio water intrudes into the SCS,it then induces a positive vorticity band extending southwestward from the west of the Luzon Strait(LS) and a negative vorticity band along the 200 m isobath of the northern basin.The positive vorticity field induced by the local summer wind stress curl is weaker than that induced in winter in the northern SCS.Besides the Kuroshio intrusion and monsoon,the water transports via the Sunda Shelf and the Sibutu Passage are also important to the circulation in the northern SCS,and the induced vorticity field in summer is almost contrary to that in winter.The strength variations of these three key factors(Kuroshio,monsoon and the water transports via the Sunda Shelf and the Sibutu Passage) determine the seasonal variations of the vorticity and eddy fields in the northern SCS.As for the water exchange via the LS,the Kuroshio intrusion brings about a net inflow into the SCS,and the monsoon has a less effect,whilst the water transports via the Sunda Shelf and the Sibutu Passage are the most important influencing factors,thus,the water exchange of the SCS with the Pacific via the LS changes dramatically from an outflow of the SCS in summer to an inflow into the SCS in winter.     

Estimating longitudinal dispersion in rivers using Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers

The longitudinal dispersion coefficient (D) is an important parameter needed to describe the transport of solutes in rivers and streams. The dispersion coefficient is generally estimated from tracer studies but the method can be expensive and time consuming, especially for large rivers. A number of empirical relations are available to estimate the dispersion coefficient; however, these relations are known to produce estimates within an order of magnitude of the tracer value. The focus of this paper is on using the shear-flow dispersion theory to directly estimate the dispersion coefficient from velocity measurements obtained using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP). Using tracer and hydrodynamic data collected within the same river reaches, we examined conditions under which the ADCP and tracer methods produced similar results. Since dead zones / transient storage (TS) are known to influence the dispersion coefficient, we assessed the relative importance of dead zones in different stream reaches using two tracer-based approaches: (1) TS modeling which explicitly accounts for dead zones and (2) the advection–dispersion equation (ADE) which does not have separate terms for dead zones. Dispersion coefficients based on the ADE tend to be relatively high as they describe some of the effects of dead zones as well. Results based on the ADCP method were found to be in good agreement with the ADE estimates indicating that storage zones play an important role in the estimated dispersion coefficients, especially at high flows. For the river sites examined in this paper, the tracer estimates of dispersion were close to the median values of the ADCP estimates obtained from multiple datasets within a reach. The ADCP method appears to be an excellent alternative to the traditional tracer-based method if care is taken to avoid spurious data and multiple datasets are used to compute a distance-weighted average or other appropriate measure that represents reach-averaged conditions.     

Dispersion in the Yucatan coastal zone: Implications for red tide events

The mechanisms governing dispersion processes in the northern Yucatan coast are investigated using a barotropic numerical model of coastal circulation, which includes wind-generated and large scale currents (i.e. Yucatan Current). This work provides the foundations for studying the dispersion of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the area. Modelling experiments include effects of climatic wind (from long term monthly mean NCEP reanalysis), short term wind events (from in situ point measurements), and Yucatan Current (YC) characteristics. Its magnitude was approximated from published reports, and its trajectory from geostrophic current fields derived from altimeter data. These provided a range of real and climatic conditions to study the routes in which phytoplankton blooms may travel. The 2-D model results show that a synthetic and conservative bloom seeded in the Cabo Catoche (CC) region (where it usually grows), moves along the coast to the west up to San Felipe (SF), where it can either move offshore, or carry on travelling westwards. The transport to the west up to SF is greatly influenced by the trajectory, intensity and proximity of the YC jet to the peninsula, which enhances the westward circulation in the Yucatan Shelf. Numerical experiments show that patch dispersion is consistently to the west even under the influence of northerly winds. When the YC flows westward towards the Campeche Bank, momentum transfer caused by the YC jet dominates the dispersion processes over wind stress. On the other hand, when it flows closer to Cuba, the local processes (i.e. wind and bathymetry) become dominant. Coastal orientation and the Coriolis force may be responsible for driving the patch offshore at SF if external forcing decreases.     

Meso-scale circulation at the intermediate-depth east of Mindanao observed by Argo profiling floats

The meso-scale circulation at the intermediate depth east of Mindanao is studied using Argo profiling floats observations. The trajectories and the parking-depth velocities of Argo floats show that the intermediate-depth circulation east of Mindanao contains significant meso-scale features that are highly variable both in space and in time. Both cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies at the intermediate depth (1000–2000 m) are indicated by the trajectories east of Mindanao. The mean tangential velocities of these eddies are about 10 cm/s at 2000 m and over 20 cm/s at 1000 m, which indicates that the geostrophic calculation may contain large errors due to the vigorous eddy activity at the reference levels. The analyses also suggest that these eddies might play an important role in mass and vorticity balances of the intermediate-depth circulation east of Mindanao.     

基于"当前"统计模型的载体速度计算

本文通过分析描述载体运动的"当前"统计模型,设计了基于"当前"统计模型计算载体速度的自适应卡尔曼滤波算法.利用航空飞行实验中获得的相位观测值,进行时序差分得出相位率,并对其组双差,获得计算速度的双差多普勒频移值,使用设计的算法进行计算分析,同时与常加速度模型的滤波结果做了比较.结果表明在静态和动态情况下,"当前"统计模...     

Variability of Nonionellina labradorica Dawson in Surface Sediments from Kongsfjorden, West Spitsbergen

Kongsfjorden is a fjord in Spitsbergen (Svalbard archipelago) that lies adjacent to both Arctic and Atlantic water masses and is therefore a suitable site to understand the effects of climate change on ecosystems. To decipher the effect of the lateral advection of transformed Atlantic water (TAW) within the fjord, spatial variations of foraminiferal tests, their test size variations and stable isotopic composition (δ13C and δ18O) in the surface sediments were studied. Total organic carbon and textural analyses were also carried out. The dominant benthic foraminifera included Nonionellina labradorica, Elphidium excavatum, Cassidulina reniforme, Quinqueloculina stalkeri and Islandiella islandica. Nonionellina labradorica was the predominant species in the outer fjord, whereas Elphidium excavatum and Cassidulina reniforme were dominant in the inner fjord. Total organic carbon and the test size of Nonionellina labradorica within the fjord were highly correlated (r2?=?0.97) and both showed a decreasing trend towards the inner fjord. Based on the distribution and abundance of Nonionellina labradorica as well as temperature profiles, we suggest that there was little or no major change in the lateral advection of TAW within the fjord in the immediate past.     

2010年中国非开挖行业调查

本文分析了中国地质学会非开挖技术专业委员会对2010年我国非开挖行业的调查和统计,主要是水平定向钻机的销售情况和非开挖管道修复与更换方法在管道工程施工中的应用情况,最后总结了2010年我国非开挖行业发展的几个特点。     

Numerical study on the bifurcation of the North Equatorial Current

A 1.5-layer reduced-gravity model forced by wind stress is used to study the bifurcations of the North Equatorial Current(NEC).The authors found that after removing the Ekman drift,the modelled circulations can serve well as a proxy of the SODA circulations on the σθ=25.0 kg m～-3 potential density surface based on available long-term reanalysis wind stress data.The modelled results show that the location of the western boundary bifurcation of the NEC depends on both zonal averaged and local zero wind stress curl latitude.The effects of the anomalous wind stress curl added in different areas are also investigated and it is found that they can change the strength of the Mindanao Eddy(ME),and then influence the interior pathway.     

南极绕极流区中尺度涡动动能年际变化和转换机制

采用多种资料研究南大洋南极绕极流(Antarctic Circumpolar Current,ACC)区中尺度涡的年际变化规律及机制.通过分析网格化融合卫星海洋资料AVISO(Archiving,Validation and Interpretation of Satellites Oceanographic DATA...     

Low-frequency variability of the North Equatorial Current bifurcation in the past 40 years from SODA

The low-frequency variability of the North Equatorial Current (NEC) bifurcation during 1958 to 2001 was investigated with the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) 2.0.2 dataset.In agreement with recent observations,the NEC bifurcation latitude (NBL) shifted northward as depth increases, from about 12.7°N near the surface to about 17.1°N at depths around 500 m for the annual average. This study reveals that the interannual variations of NBL,with five years period,mainly focused on the upper 500 m with amplitude increasing as depth increased.The NBL shifted southward in the past 40 years,which was more significant in the subsurface at more than -0.02°/a.The NBL manifests itself in the transports of NMK (NEC-Mindanao Current (MC)-Kuroshio) system in strong relationship with MC (0.7) and Kuroshio (-0.7).The EOF analysis of meridional velocity off the Philippine coast shows that the first mode,explaining 62% of variance and 5 years period,was highly correlated with the southward shift of NBL with coefficient at about 0.75.The southward shift of NBL consists with the weakening of MC and strengthening of Kuroshio,which exhibited linear trends at -0.24Sv/a and 0.11Sv/a.Both interannual variation and trend of NBL were closely related to the variation of NMK system.