Mass transport of a mesoscale eddy in the South China Sea identified by a simulated passive tracer

Jun ZHAO; Fan WANG; Shan GAO; Yinglin HOU; Kai LIU

doi:10.1007/s00343-021-1069-y

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Mass transport of a mesoscale eddy in the South China Sea identified by a simulated passive tracer

Physics | Updated：2023-05-20

- Mass transport of a mesoscale eddy in the South China Sea identified by a simulated passive tracer
- Journal of Oceanology and Limnology Vol. 40, Issue 2, Pages: 389-412(2022)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China
  2.Key Laboratory of Ocean Circulation and Wave, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China
  3.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  4.Laboratory for Ocean and Climate Dynamics, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao 266237, China
- Author bio：
  
  Shan GAO, E-mail: gaoshan@qdio.ac.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s00343-021-1069-y
  CLC：
- Received：24 February 2021，
  
  Accepted：08 March 2021，
  
  Online First：06 April 2021，
  
  Published：2022-03
- Accepted：
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Jun ZHAO, Fan WANG, Shan GAO, et al. Mass transport of a mesoscale eddy in the South China Sea identified by a simulated passive tracer[J]. Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 2022, 40(2): 389-412.
DOI：

Jun ZHAO, Fan WANG, Shan GAO, et al. Mass transport of a mesoscale eddy in the South China Sea identified by a simulated passive tracer[J]. Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 2022, 40(2): 389-412. DOI： 10.1007/s00343-021-1069-y.

摘要

Abstract

To quantitatively investigate the water mass transport of mesoscale eddies

the mass transport induced by a simulated anticyclonic eddy in the South China Sea was evaluated by using the Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS) and a built-in passive tracer module. The results indicate that the eddy can trap and transport 51% of the initial water in the eddy core to 689 km from its origin during its lifetime of 100 days

with a stable loss rate of 6‰ per day. During propagation

there is drastic horizontal water exchange between the inside and outside of the eddy. Meanwhile

the vertical mass transport is significant

and 65% of the water initially in the mixed layer of the eddy is eventually detrained into the subsurface. A tracer budget analysis of eddy shows that advection is the dominant dynamic process of transport

while the effect of mixing is weak

and horizontal process plays a controlling role. Horizontal and vertical advection exhibit opposite patterns and strongly offset each other. Particularly

a distinct dipole pattern is found in the local velocity field of the eddy

with significant convergence (downwelling) and divergence (upwelling) zones in the anterior and posterior of the eddy

respectively

which is likely related to the driving mechanism of the westward propagation of the eddy. The dipole further induces a vertical overturning cell

through which the surface water in the anterior of the eddy detrains into the subsurface by downwelling and resurface from the posterior of the eddy by upwelling and gradually spreads out of the eddy. The temporal variability in the tracer budget is significant

in which horizontal advection is dominant. The propagation acceleration and temporal derivative of the deformation rate are highly correlated with tracer transport

suggesting the potential effect of the temporal instability of eddies on the eddy mass transport.

关键词

Keywords

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