Wind-driven South China Sea deep basin warm-core/cool-core eddies

Abstract

The formation of the South China Sea (SCS) deep basin warm-core and cool-core eddies was studied numerically using the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) with 20 km horizontal resolution and 23 sigma levels conforming to a realistic bottom topography. Numerical integration was divided into pre-experimental and experimental stages. During the pre-experimental stage, we integrated the POM model for three years from zero velocity and April temperature and salinity climatological fields with climatological monthly mean wind stresses, restoring type surface salt and heat fluxes, and observational oceanic inflow/outflow at the open boundaries. During the experimental stage, we integrated the POM model for another 16 months under three different conditions: one control and two sensitivity runs (no-wind and no lateral transport). We take the fields of the last 12 months for analysis. The simulation under control run agrees well with earlier observational studies on the South China Sea surface thermal variabilities. In addition, the sensitivity study further confirms that the wind effect is the key factor for generation of the SCS deep basin warm/cool eddy and that the lateral boundary forcing is the major factor for the formation of the strong western boundary currents, especially along the southeast Chinese coast during both summer and winter monsoon seasons.