Sea surface height and transport stream function of the South China Sea from a variable-grid global ocean circulation model

A fine-grid model (1/6) covering the South China Sea (SCS), East China Sea and Ja-pan/East Sea, which is embedded into a coarse-grid (3) global model, was established to study the SCS circulation. In the present paper, we report the model-produced monthly and annual mean transport stream functions and sea surface heights(SSH) and their anomalies of the SCS. Com-parison to the TOPEX/Poseidon data shows that the model-produced monthly sea surface height anomalies (SSHA) are in good agreement with altimeter measurements. Based on the results, the circulation of the SCS, especially the upper layer circulation, is discussed. In the surface layer, the western Philippine Sea water intrudes into the SCS through the Luzon Strait in autumn, winter and spring, but not in summer. However, as far as the whole water column is concerned, the water in-trudes into the SCS through the Luzon Strait all the year round. This indicates that in summer the water still intrudes into the SCS in the subsurface and intermediate layers. The area near the northern continental slope of the SCS is dominated by a cyclonic circulation all the year round. The SCS Southern Anticyclonic Gyre, SE Vietnam Off-Shore Current in summertime and SCS South-ern Cyclonic Gyre in wintertime are reproduced reasonably. The difference between the monthly averaged SSH and SSHA is significant, indicating the importance of the mean SSH in the SCS circulation.