Numerical study on the summer circulation of the upper South China Sea and its establishment

A coupled single-layer/two-layer model is employed to study the South China Sea (SCS) upper circulation and its response before and after the onset of summer monsoon. It is found that, in summer, due to the β effect and the first baroclinic mode of the wind-driven current, a northward western boundary jet current is formed along the Indo-China Peninsula coast, and it leaves the coast at about 13° N and diffuses towards northeast; next to the Indo-China Peninsula, a large anticyclonic gyre in the southern SCS and a cyclonic eddy to the north of this gyre are induced. There are two possible mechanisms for the generation of this anticyclonic gyre: first, it is induced by the summer wind stress curl; second, it is associated with the westward moving of two anticyclonic eddies, which are originally generated to the west of Palawan Island and over the Nansha Trough respectively, in winter. The cyclonic eddy north of this anticyclonic gyre may be induced by the summer wind stess curl or related to the southwestward moving of the cyclonic eddy/gyre induced by the Kuroshio branch in the northern SCS.