A study of internal solitary waves observed on the continental shelf in the northwestern South China Sea

Based on in-situ time series data from the acoustic Doppler current profiler （ADCP） and thermistor chain in Wenchang area, a sequence of internal solitary wave （ISW） packets was observed in September 2005, propagating northwest on the continental shelf of the northwestern South China Sea （SCS）. Corresponding to different stratification of the water column and tidal condition, both elevation and depression ISWs were observed at the same mooring location with amplitude of 35 m and 25 m respectively in different days. Regular arrival of the remarkable ISW packets at approximately the diurnal tidal period and the dominance of diurnal internal waves in the study area, strongly suggest that the main energy source of the waves is the diurnal tide. Notice that the wave packets were all riding on the troughs and shoulders of the internal tides, they were probably generated locally from the shelf break by the evolution of the internal tides due to nonlinear and dispersive effects.

The three-dimensional structure and seasonal variation of the North Pacific meridional overturning circulation

The three-dimensional structure and the seasonal variation of the North Pacific meridional overturning circulation （NPMOC） are analyzed based on the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation data and Argo profiling float data. The NPMOC displays a multi-cell structure with four cells in the North Pacific altogether. The TC and the STC are a strong clockwise meridional cell in the low latitude ocean and a weaker clockwise meridional cell between 7°N and 18°N, respectively, while the DTC and the subpolar cell are a weaker anticlockwise meridional cell between 3°N and 15°N and a weakest anticlockwise meridional cell between 35°N and 50°N, respectively. The DTC, the TC and the STC are all of very strong seasonal variations. As to the DTC, the southward transport is strongest in fall and weakest in spring. For the TC, the northward transport is strongest in winter and weakest in spring, while the southward transport is strongest in fall and weakest in spring, which is associated with the strong southward fiow of the DTC in fall. As the STC, the northward transport is strongest in winter and weakest in summer, while the southward transport is strongest in summer and weakest in spring. This seasonal difference may be associated with the DTC. The zonal wind stress and the east-west slope of sea level play important roles in the seasonal variations of the TC, the STC and the DTC.

Influence of the earth rotation on the interfacial wave solutions and wave-induced tangential stress in a two-layer fluid system

Interfacial waves and wave-induced tangential stress are studied for geostrophic small amplitude waves of two-layer fluid with a top free surface and a fiat bottom. The solutions were deduced from the general form of linear fluid dynamic equations of two-layer fluid under the f-plane approximation, and wave-induced tangential stress were estimated based on the solutions obtained. As expected, the solutions derived from the present work include as special cases those obtained by Sun et al. （2004. Science in China, Ser. D, 47（12）： 1147-1154） for geostrophic small amplitude surface wave solutions and wave-induced tangential stress if the density of the upper layer is much smaller than that of the lower layer. The results show that the interface and the surface will oscillate synchronously, and the influence of the earth＇s rotation both on the surface wave solutions and the interfacial wave solutions should be considered.

Low-frequency variability of the North Equatorial Current bifurcation in the past 40 years from SODA

The low-frequency variability of the North Equatorial Current （NEC） bifurcation during 1958 to 2001 was investigated with the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation （SODA） 2.0.2 dataset. In agreement with recent observations, the NEC bifurcation latitude （NBL） shifted northward as depth increases, from about 12.7°N near the surface to about 17.1°N at depths around 500 m for the annual average. This study reveals that the interannual variations of NBL, with five years period, mainly focused on the upper 500 m with amplitude increasing as depth increased. The NBL shifted southward in the past 40 years, which was more significant in the subsurface at more than -0.02°/a. The NBL manifests itself in the transports of NMK （NEC-Mindanao Current （MC）-Kuroshio） system in strong relationship with MC （0.7） and Kuroshio （-0.7）. The EOF analysis of meridional velocity off the Philippine coast shows that the first mode, explaining 62% of variance and 5 years period, was highly correlated with the southward shift of NBL with coefficient at about 0.75. The southward shift of NBL consists with the weakening of MC and strengthening of Kuroshio, which exhibited linear trends at -0.24Sv/a and 0.11Sv/a. Both interannual variation and trend of NBL were closely related to the variation of NMK system.