Seasonal variation and formation mechanism of the South China Sea warm water

The South China Sea warm water (SCSWW) is identified as the warm water body withtemperature no less than 28*. There are three stages in the seasonal variation of the SCSWW. The SCSWW expands rapidly and deepens quickly in the developing stage. The warm water thickness decreases near the coast of Vietnam and increases near Palawan Island in the steady stage. The SCSWW flinches southward while its thickness off Palawan Island remains no less than 50 m in the flinching stage. The maximum thickness of the SCSWW is always located near the southeastern SCS. The seasonal variation of the SCSWW has a close relationship with seasonal variation of the thermocline. According to the analysis of the numerical experiment results from the Princeton Ocean Model (POM), the mechanism of the seasonal variation of the SCSWW can be interpreted as: (1) in the developing stage, the rapidly expanding and thickening feature of the SCSWW is mainly due to buoyancy flux effect (67% contribution). The weak wind and anticyclonic wind stress curl (22% contribution) present an environment which facilitates the accumulation of warm water; (2) in the steady stage, the decrease feature near the Vietnam coast and increase eature in southeast of the SCSWW thickness are mainly caused by wind stress (70% contribution); (3) in the flinching stage, the thickness reduction of the SCSWW is mainly due to upwelling and enhanced turbulent mixing caused by wind stress (accounts for 60%).

Warm water wake off northeast Vietnam in the South China Sea

Due to orographic blockage, a weak wind wake occurs in summer off northeast Vietnam in the South China Sea. Under the wind wake, warm water is observed from both high-resolution satellite data and hydrographic observations. The wake of warm water forms in June, continues to mature in July and August, starts to decay in September, and disappears in October. The warm water wake also shows robust diurnal variation – it intensifies during the day and weakens in the night. Warm water wakes can be generated through wind-induced mixing and thermal（latent heat flux） processes. In this paper, a mixed layer model is used to evaluate the relative importance of the two processes on seasonal and diurnal timescales, respectively. The results demonstrate that thermal processes make a greater contribution to the wake than wind-induced mixing processes on a seasonal timescale, while the warm water wake is dominated by wind-induced mixing processes on a diurnal timescale.

Kuroshio warm filament and the source of the warm water of the Tsushima Current

Characteristics and evolution of the Kuroshio frontal eddies and warm filaments are analyzed according to two series of satellite images (March 5 to 7, 1986 and April 14 to 16, 1988). The results show that the frontal eddies in the East China Sea are generated at the shelf break and move along the continental slope at a speed of 15 cm/s with the Kuroshio. The frontal eddies occur about every 10 d and evolve to be warm filaments a few hundred km in length and 30-40 km in width in the area west of the Yaku-shima. Meanwhile, the existence of the warm filament was also found in the area by analysing the hydrographic data in the area west of Kyushu during May 24-June 5, 1988.The Kuroshio warm filaments move westward opposite to the Kuroshio and then turn northward at the shelf break and become the main source of the warm water of the Tsushima Warm Current. A simple dynamic explanation for the process is presented in this paper.

The Effect of Warm Water and Its Weak Negative Feedback on the Rapid Intensification of Typhoon Hato(2017)

Typhoon Hato (2017) went through a rapid intensification (RI) process before making landfall in Zhuhai,Guangdong Province, as the observational data shows. Within 24 hours, its minimum sea level pressure deepened by35hPa and its maximum sustained wind speed increased by 20m s-1. According to satellite observations, Hato encountered a large area of warm water and two warm core rings before the RI process, and the average sea surface temperature cooling (SSTC) induced by Hato was only around 0.73℃. Air-sea coupled simulations were implemented to investigate the specific impact of the warm water on its RI process. The results showed that the warm water played an important role by facilitating the RI process by around 20%. Sea surface temperature budget analysis showed that the SSTC induced by mixing mechanism was not obvious due to the warm water. Besides, the cold advection hardly caused any SSTC, either. Therefore, the SSTC induced by Hato was much weaker compared with that in general cases. The negative feedback between ocean and Hato was restrained and abundant heat and moisture were sufficiently supplied to Hato. The warm water helped heat flux increase by around 20%, too. Therefore, the warm water influenced the structure and the intensity of Hato. Although there might be other factors that also participated in the RI process, this study focused on air-sea interaction in tropical cyclone forecast and discussed the impact of warm water on the intensity and structure of a tropical cyclone.

Role of ocean upper layer warm water in the rapid intensification of tropical cyclones: A case study of typhoon Rammasun(1409)

Rammasun intensified rapidly from tropical storm to super typhoon in the northern South China Sea（NSCS）before its landfall on Hainan Island. Analysis of observed data shows that the anomalous ocean upper layer warm water（WW） is important to the rapid intensification of Rammasun. During the period of Rammasun, sea surface temperature（SST） in the NSCS was much warmer than the climatological SST. The anomalous WW supplied more energy to Rammasun, resulting in its rapid intensification. Numerical simulations further confirm that the NSCS WW plays an important role in the rapid intensification of Rammasun. As the WW is removed, the intensification of Rammasun is only 25 h Pa, which is 58.1% of that in the original SST-forced run.

A reduced thermodynamic model on the formation of the Nansha warm water

A reduced vertically integrated upper mixed layer model is set up to numerically study the thermodynamic process of the formation of the 'Nansha warm water'(NWW) in the Nansha Islands sea areas in spring. According to the numerical experiments, it is shown that, in spring, the formation of the NWW is mainly due to the sea surface net heat flux and the local weak current strength; the contribution from temperature advection transport and warm water exchange with the outer seas (Sulu Sea or south of Sunda shelf) is very little. In the sea areas where the current is strong, the advection may also play an important role in the temperature field.

INCONSECUTIVE “SANDWICH STRUCTURE” PATTERN FOR HIGH TEMPERATURE WARM WATER IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC WARM POOL

An inconsecutive high frequency distribution with a"sandwich structure"pattern for high temperature warm water warmer than 29℃ in the western Pacific warm pool(WPWP) was found using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission(TRMM) sea surface temperature(SST) data,a relatively high resolution data for space.This phenomenon only shows up in boreal summer(June to September),and becomes obvious when WPWP SST is higher than 29℃.As observed,East Asian summer monsoon(EASM) impinges on Philippine Islands in July,which has an important impact on the formation and maintenance of the "sandwich structure".Winds affect the distribution of SST in two ways:one by increasing the local latent heat flux and the other by transporting cold water towards the southeast of Philippine Islands.

Primary productivity in the western tropical Pacific and equatorial warm waters

Primary productivity in the western tropical Pacific and equatorial warm waters was studied in the WOCE cruise in November of 1991 and the TOGA-COARE cruise from November of 1992 to February of 1993.It is shown that the total amount of integrated chlorophyll a(chloro a)was 19 79 mg/m 2 in depthof0～150 m and the average daily primary productivity was 171 mg/(m 2·d)(C)appeared in the western tropical Pacific while a higher chloro a(21 68 mg/m 2)and primary productivity [228 mg/(m 2·d)(C)]were observed in the equatorial warm waters.The highest chloro a was found at the coastal stations of Philippines and Irian while the lowest chloro a was at the offshore areas bounded by 2°～4°N.The distribution pattern of chloro a biomass was related to different physical processes.Upwelling,which may have led to a high biomass, was a critical factor changing the distributions of temperature,salinity and nutrient in these areas.

Formation of Well-Mixed Warm Water Column in Central Bohai Sea During Summer: Role of High-Frequency Atmospheric Forcing

The influence of high-frequency atmospheric forcing on the formation of a well-mixed summer warm water column in the central Bohai Sea is investigated comparing model simulations driven by daily surface forcing and those using monthly forcing data. In the absence of high-frequency atmospheric forcing, numerical simulations have repeatedly failed to reproduce this vertically uniform column of warm water measured over the past 35 years. However, high-frequency surface forcing is found to strongly influence the structure and distribution of the well-mixed warm water column, and simulations are in good agreement with observations. Results show that high frequency forcing enhances vertical mixing over the central bank, intensifies downward heat transport, and homogenizes the water column to form the Bohai central warm column. Evidence presented shows that high frequency forcing plays a dominant role in the formation of the well-mixed warm water column in summer, even without the effects of tidal and surface wave mixing. The present study thus provides a practical and rational way of further improving the performance of oceanic simulations in the Bohai Sea and can be used to adjust parameterization schemes of ocean models.

Simulation of gas production from hydrate reservoir by the combination of warm water flooding and depressurization

Gas production from hydrate reservoir by the combination of warm water flooding and depressurization is proposed,which can overcome the deficiency of single production method.Based on the combination production method,the physical and mathematical models are developed to simulate the hydrate dissociation.The mathematical model can be used to analyze the effects of the flow of multiphase fluid,the kinetic process of hydrate dissociation,the endothermic process of hydrate dissociation,ice-water phase equilibrium,the convection and conduction on the hydrate dissociation and gas and water production.The mechanism of gas production by the combination of warm water flooding and depressurization is revealed by the numerical simulation.The evolutions of such physical variables as pressure,temperature,saturations and gas and water rates are analyzed.Numerical results show that under certain conditions the combination method has the advantage of longer stable period of high gas rate than the single producing method.

Seasonal variation of the Taiwan Warm Current Water and its underlying mechanism

Based on the historical observed data and the modeling results,this paper investigated the seasonal variations in the Taiwan Warm Current Water(TWCW)using a cluster analysis method and examined the contributions of the Kuroshio onshore intrusion and the Taiwan Strait Warm Current(TSWC)to the TWCW on seasonal time scales.The TWCW has obviously seasonal variation in its horizontal distribution,T-S characteristics and volume.The volume of TWCW is maximum(13746 km^3)in winter and minimum(11397 km^3)in autumn.As to the contributions to the TWCW,the TSWC is greatest in summer and smallest in winter,while the Kuroshio onshore intrusion northeast of Taiwan Island is strongest in winter and weakest in summer.By comparison,the Kuroshio onshore intrusion make greater contributions to the Taiwan Warm Current Surface Water(TWCSW)than the TSWC for most of the year,except for in the summertime(from June to August),while the Kuroshio Subsurface Water(KSSW)dominate the Taiwan Warm Current Deep Water(TWCDW).The analysis results demonstrate that the local monsoon winds is the dominant factor controlling the seasonal variation in the TWCW volume via Ekman dynamics,while the surface heat fl ux can play a secondary role via the joint ef fect of baroclinicity and relief.

On the origin of the Tsushima Warm Current Water

The origin of the Tsushima Warm Current Water(TWCW) in summer is studied mainly on the basis of the CTD data and the observations of satellite-traced surface drifters of Coastal Ocean Process Experiment of the East China Sea(COPEX-ECS) conducted by Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute. The main results are as follows: (1) The structures of the TWCW show obvious regional varitaions. The TWCW can be divided into three layers in the northern Okinawa Trough west of Kyushu and into two layers on the continental shelf and in the Tsushima/Korea Strait. (2) The surface TWCW, charactered by a sub-high salinity (33. 5～ 34. 10), comes mainly from the coastal water composed largely of the Changjiang Diluted Water, the surface Kuroshio water and the shelf water in the area south of the East China Sea (ECS). (3) The middle TWCW is sub-grouped into two parts: the water of salinity (S) larger than 34. 50 located below the thermocline originates from the climbed sub-surface Kuroshio water;the TWCW lying in the thermocline is a mixture of the Kuroshio water and the shelf water with low salinity. (4) In the strait, the water from the source area is denatured obviously due to mixing unceasingly wth the shelf water and coastal water. The high salinity water of S >34. 5 appears only in the bottom layer with depths>50m.

Spring upper warm water of the Nansha Islands sea area in the South China Sea and the numerical study on its dynamic mechanism

According to the satellite remote sensing monthly mean sea surface temperature data and in situ observational Conductivity-Temperature-Depth data, it is shown that in spring, at the upper layer to the west of Palawan Island, there exists a relatively weak warm water tongue which is distinctly different from the cold water southeast of the Balabac Strait. The relative temperature difference between the warm and cold water reduces gradually from winter to spring. P-vector method is employed to calculate the current field based on the in situ observational data, which shows that the warm water is within an anti-cyclonic meander. Based on the remote sensing wind stress during the observational period, a coupled single-layer/two-layer model is employed to study the dynamic mechanism of this anticyclonic meander current field corresponding to the warm water tongue. According to the numerical results, it is suggested that this anticyclonic meander could be mainly the residue of the winter anticyclonic eddy, rather than formed by the inflow water from the Sulu Sea via the Balabac Strait.

Surface warming patterns dominate the uncertainty in global water vapor plus lapse rate feedback

Climate feedbacks have been usually estimated using changes in radiative effects associated with increased global-mean surface temperature. Feedback uncertainties, however, are not only functions of global-mean surface temperature increase. In projections by global climate models, it has been demonstrated that the geographical variation of sea surface temperature change brings significant uncertainties into atmospheric circulation and precipitation responses at regional scales. Here we show that the spatial pattern of surface warming is a major contributor to uncertainty in the combined water vapour-lapse rate feedback. This is demonstrated by computing the global-mean radiative effects of changes in air temperature and relative humidity simulated by 31 climate models using a methodology based on radiative kernels. Our results highlight the important contribution of regional climate change to the uncertainty in climate feedbacks, and identify the regions of the world where constraining surface warming patterns would be most effective for higher skill of climate projections.

Warming and depth convergence of the Arctic Intermediate Water in the Canada Basin during 1985–2006

The warming of the Arctic Intermediate Water （AIW） is studied based on the analyses of hydro- graphic observations in the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean during 1985-2006. It is shown that how the anomalously warm AIW spreads in the Canada Basin during the observation time through the analysis of the AIW temperature spatial distribution in different periods. The results indicate that by 2006, the entire Canada Basin has almost been covered by the warming AIW. In order to study interannual variability of the AIW in the Canada Basin, the Canada Basin is divided into five regions according to the bottom topography. From the interannual variation of AIW temperature in each region, it is shown that a cooling period follows after the warming event in upstream regions. At the Chukchi Abyssal Plain and Chukchi Plateau, upstream of the Arctic Circumpolar Boundary Current （ACBC） in the Canada Basin, the AIW temperature reached maximum and then started to fall respectively in 2000 and 2002. However, the AIW in the Canada Abyssal Plain and Beaufort Sea continues to warm monotonically until the year 2006. Furthermore, it is revealed that there is convergence of the AIW depth in the five different regions of the Canada Basin when the AIW warming occurs during observation time. The difference of AIW depth between the five regions of the Canada Basin is getting smaller and smaller, all approaching 410 m in recent years. The results show that depth convergence is related to the variation of AIW potential density in the Canada Basin.

On the Taiwan Warm Current Water

Using our data from special observation in the source area of the Taiwan Warm Current from 19S2 to 1985) and historical data, the authors conducted studies to clarify the temperature and salinity characteristics, variability, and origin of the Taiwan Warm Current Water, and its influence on the expanding direction of the Changjiang Diluted Water.The main results of these studies are briefly given below. (1) The Taiwan Warm Current Water can be divided into two parts:the Surface Water of the Taiwan Warm Current and the Deep Water of the Taiwan Warm Current; the former is formed due to the mixing of the Kuroshio Surface Water flowing northward along the east coast of Taiwan with the Taiwan Strait Water; the latter completed originates from Kuroshio Subsurface Water to the east of Taiwan. It is characterized by lower temperature and higher salinity in summer and the characteristics of temperature and salinity are more stable. The maximum seasonal variational range and maximum secular variational range of

A study on the source of the Tsushima Warm Current water

On the basis of the hydrographic data in the area west of Kyushu from four cruises of R/V Xiangyanghong No. 9 from 1987 to 1988 , the circulation features in the investigation area are described and the source of the Tsushima Warm Current water (TWCW) is explored by using the observed and geostrophic current results and tracking the Kuroshio Subsurface High Salinity Core (KSHSC).

Discussion on possibilities of taking ground ice in permafrost as water sources on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during climate warming

Large amounts of ground ice are born with permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.Degradation of permafrost resulted from the climate warming will inevitably lead to melting of ground ice.The water released from the melting ground ice enters hydrologic cycles at various levels,and changes regional hydrologic regimes to various degrees.Due to difficulties in monitoring the perma-frost-degradation-release-water process,direct and reliable evidence is few.The accumulative effect of releasing water,however,is remarkable in the macro-scale hydrologic process.On the basis of the monitoring results of water-levels changes in some lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,and combined with the previous results of the hydrologic changing trends at the regional scale,the authors preliminarily discussed the possibilities of the degrading permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as a potential water source during climate warming.

Possibility of utilizing water-atomized Fe-Ni-Mo steel powder as base materials for warm compaction process

Water atomized Fe Ni Mo steel powder, was utilized as base powder for designing powder mixtures for warm pressing. The warm pressing and sintering behaviours of the powder mixtures were studied. The results show that, compared with the pressing at room temperature, the green density gain by warm pressing is within a range of 0.10 0.19 g/cm 3 and reduction in spring back is 30% 40% of the ambient, and maximum green density of 7.32 g/cm 3 at 735 MPa is obtained as the graphite mass fraction is 0.8%. It was found that sintered densities of the compacts were reduced slightly due to releasing of elastic stress stored in the compacts during sintering. The warm pressing of steel powders gives evidence for substituting the traditional double pressing and double sintering process.

The World’s Largest Lakes Water Level Changes in the Context of Global Warming

The article is focused on the assessment of changes in the average annual water levels of large lakes of the planet in the changing climate conditions characteristic of the recent decades. Eight large lakes, i.e.Baikal, Balkhash, Superior, Issyk-Kul, Ladoga, Onega, Ontario, and Erie, located on the territory of Eurasia and North America, were chosen as the research objects. They were selected because of the availability of a long-term observations series of the water level. As is known, long-term changes in the lakes water level result from variation in the water volume. The latter depends on the?ratios between the water balance components of the lake that have developed during a given year, which, in turn, reflect the climatic conditions of the respective years. The features of the water balance structure of the above-mentioned?lakes and the intra-annual course of the water level are considered. The available long-term records of observational data on all selected lakes and their stations were divided into two periods: from 1960 to 1979 (the period of stationary climatic situation) and from 1980 to 2008 (the period of non-stationary climatic situation). The homogeneity and significance of trends in the long-term water level series of records have been estimated. It has been established that over the second period the nature and magnitude of the lakes water levels variations differ significantly. For lakes Balkhash, Issyk-Kul, Ladoga, Superior, and Erie, there is a general tendency for a decrease in water levels. For the remaining three lakes (Baikal, Onega, and Ontario), the opposite tendency has been noted: the levels of these lakes increased. Quantitatively, the range of changes in water levels on the lakes in question over the period of 1980-2008 ranged from -4 cm to +26 cm.