Spatial and temporal variation characteristics of ocean waves in the South China Sea during the boreal winter
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Spatial and temporal variation characteristics of ocean waves in the South China Sea during the boreal winter ZHU Geli1,3*, LIN Wantao1, ZHAO Sen1,2, CAO Yanhua3 1 State
Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 3 Department of Mathematics and Physics, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China Received 9 April 2014; accepted 4 July 2014 ©The Chinese Society of Oceanography and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Abstract The spatial and temporal variation characteristics of the waves in the South China Sea (SCS) in the boreal winter during the period of 1979/1980–2011/2012 have been investigated based on the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts interim (ERA-Interim) reanalysis dataset. The results show that the leading mode of significant wave height anomalies (SWHA) in the SCS exhibits significant interannual variation and a decadal shift around the mid-1990s, and features a basin-wide pattern in the entire SCS with a center located in the west of the Luzon Strait. The decadal change from a weak regime to a strong regime is mainly associated with the enhancement of winter monsoon modulated by the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO). The interannual variation of the SWHA has a significant negative correlation with the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the same season and the preceding autumn. For a better understanding of the physical mechanism between the SCS ocean waves and ENSO, further investigation is made by analyzing atmospheric circulation. The impact of the ENSO on the SWHA over the SCS is bridged by the East Asian winter monsoon and Pacific-East Asian teleconnection in the lower troposphere. During the El Niño (La Niña), the anomalous Philippine Sea anticyclone (cyclone) dominates over the Western North Pacific, helps to weaken (enhance) East Asian winter monsoon and then emerges the negative (positive) SWHA in the SCS. Key words: ocean waves, interannual variability, South China Sea, ENSO, PDO Citation: Zhu Geli, Lin Wantao, Zhao Sen, Cao Yanhua. 2015. Spatial and temporal variation characteristics of ocean waves in the South China Sea during the boreal winter. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 34(1): 23–28, doi: 10.1007/s13131-015-0592-0
1 Introduction The South China Sea (SCS) is the largest semi-enclosed marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, located in the southernmost of Eurasia. The Taiwan Strait and the Luzon Strait in northeastern connect to the East China Sea and the western Philippine Sea. The Mindoro Strait in the east connects to the Sulu Sea, Sunda shelf in the southern SCS between the Malay Peninsula and Borneo exchanges water with Java Sea. The west boundary is adjacent to the Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam and the Gulf of Thailand from north to south. The SCS has abundant resources, such as oil, gas, rare metals and fish. For these superior sea conditions, the SCS has b
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