Analysis of monthly variability of thermocline in the South China Sea

Hanbang PENG; Aijun PAN; Quan'an ZHENG; Jianyu HU

doi:10.1007/s00343-017-6151-0

Your Location：

Home >

Browse articles >

Analysis of monthly variability of thermocline in the South China Sea

Physics | Updated：2023-05-19

- Analysis of monthly variability of thermocline in the South China Sea
- Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology Vol. 36, Issue 2, Pages: 205-215(2018)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China
  2.Ocean Dynamics Laboratory, the Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration(SOA), Xiamen 361005, China
  3.Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, USA
- Author bio：
  
  HU Jianyu, hujy@xmu.edu.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s00343-017-6151-0
  CLC：
- Received：25 May 2016，
  
  Accepted：09 October 2016，
  
  Online First：11 December 2016，
  
  Published：2018-03
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Hanbang PENG, Aijun PAN, Quan'an ZHENG, et al. Analysis of monthly variability of thermocline in the South China Sea[J]. Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 2018, 36(2): 205-215.
DOI：

Hanbang PENG, Aijun PAN, Quan'an ZHENG, et al. Analysis of monthly variability of thermocline in the South China Sea[J]. Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 2018, 36(2): 205-215. DOI： 10.1007/s00343-017-6151-0.

摘要

Abstract

This study analyzes monthly variability of thermocline and its mechanism in the South China Sea (SCS). The study is based on 51-year (1960-2010) monthly seawater temperature and surface wind stress data from Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA)

together with heat flux

precipitation and evaporation data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

respectively. The results reveal that the upper boundary depth (

)

lower boundary depth (

low

)

thickness (△

) and intensity (

) of thermocline in the SCS show remarkable monthly variability. Being averaged for the deep basin of SCS

deepens gradually from May to the following January and then shoals from February to May

while

low

varies little throughout the whole year. Further diagnostics indicates that the monthly variability of

is mainly caused by the buoyancy flux and wind stress curl. Using a linear method

the impacts of the buoyancy flux and wind stress curl on

can be quantitatively distinguished. The results suggest that

tends to deepen about 4.6 m when the buoyancy flux increases by 1×10

-5

kg/(m·s

)

while it shoals about 2.5 m when the wind stress curl strengthens by 1×10

-7

N/m

关键词

Keywords

references

Carton J A, Chepurin G, Cao X H, Giese B. 2000a. A simple ocean data assimilation analysis of the global upper ocean 1950-95. Part Ⅰ:methodology. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 30(2):294-309.

Carton J A, Chepurin G, Cao X H. 2000b. A simple ocean data assimilation analysis of the global upper ocean 1950-95.Part Ⅱ:results. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 30(2):311-326.

Carton J A, Giese B S, Grodsky S A. 2005. Sea level rise and the warming of the oceans in the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) ocean reanalysis. J. Geophys. Res., 110(C9):C09006, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JC002817.

Carton J A, Giese B S. 2008. A reanalysis of ocean climate using Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA). Mon.Wea. Rev., 136(8):2 999-3 017.

Chen M Y, Xie P P, Janowiak J E, Arkin P A. 2002. Global land precipitation:a 50-yr monthly analysis based on gauge observations. J. Hydrometeorol., 3(3):249-266.

China State Bureau of Technical Supervision (CSBTS). 2008. GB/T 12763. 7-2007 The specifications for oceanographic survey-Part 7: exchange of oceanographic survey data. China Standards Press, Beijing. (in Chinese)

Fang X J, Wang C X, Xu J J. 2013. Seasenal and interannual variations of the thermocline depth in the South China Sea. Trans. Oceanol. Limnol ., (3): 45-55. (in Chinese with English abstract) http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOTAL-HYFB201303006.htm

Fofonoff P, Millard Jr R C. 1983. Algorithms for computation of fundamental properties of seawater. UNESCO Tech. Papers in Marine Science 44, UNESCO. 53p.

Ge R F, Qiao F L, Yu F, Jiang Z X, Guo J S. 2003. A method for calculating thermocline characteristic elements in shelf sea area-Quasi-step function approximation method. Adv. Mar. Sci. , 21 (4): 393-400. (in Chinese with English abstract) http://europepmc.org/abstract/CBA/552627

Giese B S, Ray S. 2011. El Niño variability in simple ocean data assimilation (SODA), 1871-2008. J. Geophys. Res., 116(C2):C02024, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JC006695.

Gill A E. 1982. Atmosphere-Ocean Dynamics. Academic Press, San Diego, USA.

Hao J J, Chen Y L, Wang F, Lin P F. 2012. Seasonal thermocline in the China Seas and northwestern Pacific Ocean. J.Geophys. Res, 117(C2):C02022, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JC007246.

Hao J J, Chen Y L, Wang F. 2008. A study of thermocline calculations in the China Sea. Mar. Sci. , 32 (12): 17-24. (in Chinese with English abstract) http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOTAL-HYKX200812005.htm

Kalnay E, Kanamitsu M, Kistler R, Collins W, Deaven D, Gandin L, Iredell M, Saha S, White G, Woollen J, Zhu Y, Leetmaa A, Reynolds B, Chelliah M, Ebisuzaki W, Higgins W, Janowiak J, Mo K C, Ropelewski C, Wang J, Jenne R, Joseph D. 1996. The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 77(3):437-472.

Lan J, Bao Y, Yu F, Sun S W. 2006. Seasonal variabilities of the circulation and thermocline depth in the South China Sea deep water basin. Adv. Mar. Sci. , 24 (4): 436-445. (in Chinese with English abstract) http://en.cnki.com.cn/article_en/cjfdtotal-hbhh200604003.htm

Liu Q Y, Jia Y L, Liu P H, Wang Q, Chu P C. 2001. Seasonal and intraseasonal thermocline variability in the central South China Sea. Geophys. Res. Lett., 28(23):4 467-4 470.

Liu Q Y, Yang H J, Wang Q. 2000. Dynamic characteristics of seasonal thermocline in the deep sea region of the South China Sea. Chin. J. Oceanol. Limnol., 18(2):104-109.

Lozovatsky I, Figueroa M, Roget E, Fernando H J S, Shapovalov S. 2005. Observations and scaling of the upper mixed layer in the North Atlantic. J. Geophys. Res., 110(C5):C05013, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JC002708.

McDougall T J. 1987. Neutral surfaces. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 17(11):1 950-1 964.

Schmitt R W, Bogden P S, Dorman C E. 1989. Evaporation minus precipitation and density fluxes for the North Atlantic. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 19(9):1 208-1 221.

Yu L S, Jin X Z, Weller R A. 2008. Multidecade global flux datasets from the objectively analyzed air-sea fluxes(OAFlux) project: latent and sensible heat fluxes, ocean evaporation, and related surface meteorological variables. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, OAFlux Project Technical Report. OA-2008-01, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA. 64p.

Zhou F X, Gao R Z. 2001. Intraseasonal variability of the subsurface temperature observed in the South China Sea(SCS). Chin. Sci. Bull., 47(4):337-342.

Views

Downloads

CSCD

Alert me when the article has been cited

Submit

Tools

Publicity Resources

A study of response of thermocline in the South China Sea to ENSO events

Characteristics of the transition layer in the South China Sea in 1998

Comparative analysis of mesoscale eddies based on Eulerian and Lagrangian frameworks

Prediction of sea surface pCO₂ in the South China Sea using Spatiotemporal Convolutional LSTM model

Distribution, source, and sink of microplastics in the nearshore-estuarine systems of the South China Sea basin

Related Author

Li Peiliang

Zuo Juncheng

Li Lei

Du Ling

Zekai CHEN

Yifan LIU

Qiong XIA

Shuang LI

Related Institution

Department of Oceanography Ocean University of Qingdao

Department of Marine Technology, Guangdong Ocean University

Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory

Zhanjiang Bay Laboratory of Guangdong Province

Ocean College, Zhejiang University

Address：Editorial Office of JOL, 88 Haijun Rd. Qingdao, 266000, China
Tel：+86-532-82898754 Email：jol@qdio.ac.cn
Technical support is provided by Beijing Founder electronics co., LTD 京ICP备09064830号-19 京公网安备11010802024621
It is recommended to read the content of this site in Chrome&IE9+. Please switch to extreme mode in browser 360.
Cookies We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content. By continuing, you agree to the use of cookies.

⁰