Structure and seasonal variability of fronts in the Southeast Indian Ocean along sections from Fremantle, Australia to Antarctic Zhongshan Station

Four sections of expendable conductivity-temperature-depth （XCTD） profiles from Fremantle, Australia to Antarctic Zhongshan Station and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer-Aquarius （MODIS-A） sea surface temperature （SST） products were used to study the structure and seasonal variability of Southeast Indian Ocean fronts. Water mass analysis showed that surface water masses in the Southeast Indian Ocean were less salty in March than in November. Compared with November, the subtropical front （STF） moved southward about one degree of latitude in March, whereas seasonal variability of the subantarctic front （SAF） and polar front （PF） locations was not obvious. In March, the saline front moved northward about two degrees of latitude relative to the thermal front in the upper 100 m at the SAF, which was the northern boundary of sub- Antarctic surface water （SASW）. Analysis of climatological SST gradients from the satellite data showed that regions of enhanced sea surface temperature （SST） gradients were collocated with frontal locations identified with the XCTD data using water mass criteria. The surface expression of the PF identified by the SST gradient was further south by about one degree of latitude relative to the subsurface expression of the PF identified by the northern boundary of cold water.

A Study on the Nonlinear Stability of Fronts in the Ocean on a Sloping Continental Shelf

The baroclinic nonlinear stability of fronts in the ocean on a sloping continental shelf is studied, the model equations, called the frontal geostrophic model, developed by Cushman—Roisin et al.(1992) for describing the dynamics of surface density fronts in the ocean are developed and the two—layer frontal geostrophic model for fronts on a sloping continental shelf is first obtained. The nonlinear stability criteria for the fronts on a sloping bottom are obtained by using Arnol’d (1965, 1969) variational principle and a prior estimate method. It is shown that our result is better than the former works. Key words Fronts in the ocean - Frontal geostrophic model - Nonlinear stability This Work was supported by “ the National Key Programme for Developing Basic Sciences” G199804901-1 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China “ Research Programme for Excellent State Key Laboratory” under Grant No. 49823002 and No. 49805002.

Seasonal variation in the three-dimensional structures of coastal thermal front off western Guangdong

The seasonal structure and dynamic mechanism of oceanic surface thermal fronts(STFs)along the western Guangdong coast over the northern South China Sea shelf were analyzed using in situ observational data,remote sensing data,and numerical simulations.Both in situ and satellite observations show that the coastal thermal front exhibits substantial seasonal variability,being strongest in winter when it has the greatest extent and strongest sea surface temperature gradient.The winter coastal thermal front begins to appear in November and disappears after the following April.Although runoff water is more plentiful in summer,the front is weak in the western part of Guangdong.The frontal intensity has a significant positive correlation with the coastal wind speed,while the change of temperature gradient after September lags somewhat relative to the alongshore wind.The numerical simulation results accurately reflect the seasonal variation and annual cycle characteristics of the frontal structure in the simulated area.Based on vertical cross-section data,the different frontal lifecycles of the two sides of the Zhujiang(Pearl)River Estuary are analyzed.