A case study of continental shelf waves in the northwestern South China Sea induced by winter storms in 2021

This study aims to investigate characteristics of continental shelf wave(CSW)on the northwestern continental shelf of the South China Sea(SCS)induced by winter storms in 2021.Mooring and cruise observations,tidal gauge data at stations Hong Kong,Zhapo and Qinglan and sea surface wind data from January 1 to February 28,2021 are used to examine the relationship between along-shelf wind and sea level fluctuation.Two events of CSWs driven by the along-shelf sea surface wind are detected from wavelet spectra of tidal gauge data.The signals are triply peaked at periods of 56 h,94 h and 180 h,propagating along the coast with phase speed ranging from 6.9 m/s to18.9 m/s.The dispersion relation shows their property of the Kelvin mode of CSW.We develop a simple method to estimate amplitude of sea surface fluctuation by along-shelf wind.The results are comparable with the observation data,suggesting it is effective.The mode 2 CSWs fits very well with the mooring current velocity data.The results from rare current help to understand wave-current interaction in the northwestern SCS.

Observation of continental shelf wave propagating along the eastern Taiwan Strait during Typhoon Meranti 2016

This study is the fi rst to depict typhoon-induced continental shelf wave(CSW)propagation in the eastern Taiwan Strait(TWS)during the passage of Typhoon Meranti in 2016 using tidal gauge data and along-track satellite altimeter data.The strong amplitude response of sea level oscillations(within the range of 0.30–0.54 m)as a free,barotropic CSW after Meranti,which impacted the TWS,was clearly detected in time and frequency(in bands of 64–81 h)using wavelet and cross-wavelet analyses.The measured group and phase speeds were consistent with the dispersion curves for CSW with the fi rst-mode derived from the cross-shelf sections of the eastern TWS,with the mean speeds reaching 3 and 5.6±0.7 m/s,respectively.Coincidentally,the typhoon-induced sea level anomaly(SLA)was also captured by the satellite altimeter before this CSW entered into the TWS.Using the theoretical cross-shore CSW modes to fi t the SLA data,the results indicated that the fi rst three wave modes can interpret this CSW event appeared in the southern TWS very well,with the fi rst mode being the dominant one.

The continental shelf wave of the East China Sea and its effect on the Kuroshio

The free shelf wave theory is applied to the practical case of the continental shelf in the East China Sea to analyse the effects of the shelf wave on the Kuroshio. The results indicate that the shelf wave in lower frequency travels from north to south and its phase velocity is proportional to the Kuroshio's current velocity) the maximum current velocity of the Kuroshio lies at the continental margin. The analytical solutions obtained indicate that the hydrodynamic characters of the sea region over the shelf present band structure. The horizontal motion ( x -component) caused by the shelf wave at the margin may be one of the causes for generating wavy pattern of the Kuroshio's axis .