Interdecadal variability of the eastward current in the South China Sea associated with the summer Asian monsoon
Citable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4305As published
https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JCLI3607.1DOI
10.1175/2010JCLI3607.1Abstract
Based on the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) dataset and three types of Sverdrup streamfunction, an interdecadal variability of the eastward current in the middle South China Sea (SCS) during summer is identified. Both the pattern and strength of the summer Asian monsoon wind stress curl over the SCS contribute to the interdecadal variability of this current. From 1960 to 1979, the monsoon intensified and the zero wind stress curl line shifted southward. Both the core of positive wind stress curl in the northern SCS and the negative curl in the southern SCS moved southward and thus induced a southward shift of both the southern anticyclonic and northern cyclonic gyres, resulting in a southward displacement of the eastward current associated with these two gyres. In the meantime, the southern (northern) SCS anticyclonic (cyclonic) ocean gyre weakened (strengthened) and therefore also induced the southward shift of the eastward current near the intergyre boundary. In contrast, the eastward current shifted northward from 1980 to 1998 because the monsoon relaxed and the zero wind stress curl line shifted northward. After 1998, the eastward jet moved southward again as the zero wind stress curl line shifted southward and the SCS monsoon strengthened. The eastward current identified from the baroclinic streamfunction moved about 1.7° more southward than that from the barotropic streamfunction, indicating that the meridional position of the eastward current is depth dependent.
Description
Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Climate 23 (2010): 6115-6123, doi:10.1175/2010JCLI3607.1.
Collections
Suggested Citation
Journal of Climate 23 (2010): 6115-6123Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Intraseasonal rainfall variability in the Bay of Bengal during the Summer Monsoon : coupling with the ocean and modulation by the Indian Ocean Dipole
Jongaramrungruang, Siraput; Seo, Hyodae; Ummenhofer, Caroline C. (John Wiley & Sons, 2017-01-24)The Indian Summer Monsoon rainfall exhibits pronounced intraseasonal variability in the Bay of Bengal (BoB). This study examines the intraseasonal rainfall variability with foci on the coupling with sea surface temperatures ... -
A recipe for simulating the interannual variability of the Asian summer monsoon and its relation with ENSO
Bracco, Annalisa; Kucharski, Fred; Molteni, Franco; Hazeleger, Wilco; Severijns, Camiel (2006-08-21)This study investigates how accurately the interannual variability over the Indian Ocean basin and the relationship between the Indian summer monsoon and the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) can be simulated by different ... -
Low-frequency variability of the Indian monsoon-ENSO relationship and the tropical Atlantic : the "Weakening" of the 1980s and 1990s
Kucharski, Fred; Bracco, Annalisa; Yoo, J. H.; Molteni, Franco (American Meteorological Society, 2007-08-15)The Indian monsoon–El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) relationship, according to which a drier than normal monsoon season precedes peak El Niño conditions, weakened significantly during the last two decades of the twentieth ...