Impacts of a wind stress and a buoyancy flux on the seasonal variation of mixing layer depth in the South China Sea

The seasonal variation of mixing layer depth （MLD） in the ocean is determined by a wind stress and a buoy- ance flux. A South China Sea （SCS） ocean data assimilation system is used to analyze the seasonal cycle of its MLD. It is found that the variability of MLD in the SCS is shallow in summer and deep in winter, as is the case in general. Owing to local atmosphere forcing and ocean dynamics, the seasonal variability shows a regional characteristic in the SCS. In the northern SCS, the MLD is shallow in summer and deep in winter, affected coherently by the wind stress and the buoyance flux. The variation of MLD in the west is close to that in the central SCS, influenced by the advection of strong western boundary currents. The eastern SCS presents an annual cycle, which is deep in summer and shallow in winter, primarily impacted by a heat flux on the air-sea interface. So regional characteristic needs to be cared in the analysis about the MLD of SCS.

Factors influencing the climatological mixed layer depth in the South China Sea:numerical simulations

The mixed layer depth(MLD) in the upper ocean is an important physical parameter for describing the upper ocean mixed layer.We analyzed several major factors influencing the climatological mixed layer depth(CMLD),and established a numerical simulation in the South China Sea(SCS) using the Regional Ocean Model System(ROMS) with a high-resolution(1/12°×1/12°) grid nesting method and 50 vertical layers.Several ideal numerical experiments were tested by modifying the existing sea surface boundary conditions.Especially,we analyzed the sensitivity of the results simulated for the CMLD with factors of sea surface wind stress(SSWS),sea surface net heat flux(SSNHF),and the difference between evaporation and precipitation(DEP).The result shows that of the three factors that change the depth of the CMLD,SSWS is in the first place,when ignoring the impact of SSWS,CMLD will change by 26% on average,and its effect is always to deepen the CMLD;the next comes SSNHF(13%) for deepening the CMLD in October to January and shallowing the CMLD in February to September;and the DEP comes in the third(only 2%).Moreover,we analyzed the temporal and spatial characteristics of CMLD and compared the simulation result with the ARGO observational data.The results indicate that ROMS is applicable for studying CMLD in the SCS area.

Analysis of monthly variability of thermocline in the South China Sea

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(Z_(up)), lower boundary depth(Z _(low)), thickness(?Z) and intensity( T _z) of thermocline in the SCS show remarkable monthly variability. Being averaged for the deep basin of SCS, Z_(up) deepens gradually from May to the following January and then shoals from February to May, while Z low varies little throughout the whole year. Further diagnostics indicates that the monthly variability of Z_(up) 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 Z_(up) can be quantitatively distinguished. The results suggest that Z_(up) tends to deepen about 4.6 m when the buoyancy flux increases by 1×10^(-5) kg/(m?s ~3), while it shoals about 2.5 m when the wind stress curl strengthens by 1×10-^(7) N/m3.

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

This paper investigates the response of the thermocline depth(TD) in the South China Sea(SCS) to the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation(ENSO) events using 51-year(from 1960 to 2010) monthly seawater temperature and surface wind stress data acquired from the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation(SODA), together with heat flux data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction(NCEP), precipitation data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) and evaporation data from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution(WHOI). It is indicated that the response of the SCS TD to the El Ni?o or La Ni?a events is in opposite phase. On one hand, the spatial-averaged TDs in the SCS(deeper than 200 m) appear as negative and positive anomalies during the mature phase of the El Ni?o and La Ni?a events, respectively. On the other hand, from June of the El Ni?o year to the subsequent April, the spatial patterns of TD in the north and south of 12°N appear as negative and positive anomalies, respectively, but present positive and negative anomalies for the La Ni?a case. However, positive and negative TD anomalies occur almost in the entire SCS in May of the subsequent year of the El Ni?o and La Ni?a events, respectively. It is suggested that the response of the TD in the SCS to the ENSO events is mainly caused by the sea surface buoyancy flux and the wind stress curl.