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Composite eddy structures on both sides of the Luzon Strait and influence factors

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Abstract

Combining Argo observations with satellite remote sensing data during the period of 2002–2014, the mean three-dimensional structures of mesoscale eddies on both sides of the Luzon Strait (LS) were obtained via a composite method and analyzed to statistically examine the influences of background marine environment and the Kuroshio current on the eddy structures. The significant signals of temperature and salinity anomalies within the composite eddies extend much deeper in the region east of the LS (zone E) than those in the region west of the strait (zone W) because of stronger eddy intensity and larger vertical gradients of background temperature and salinity in the deep layer in zone E. In the vertical structure of temperature anomaly within the eddies, two cores occur at around 200 and 400 dbar depths, respectively, in zone E and only one core is centered at about 100 dbar in zone W. There is a clear three-core sandwich pattern in the vertical structure of salinity anomaly within the eddies in zone E. The Kuroshio water trapped in the eddy is responsible for abnormally positive salinity anomaly in the surface layer of the anticyclonic eddy center in zone W. On both sides of the LS, an asymmetric dipole structure in the surface layer gradually turns into a monopole one at depths, which resulted from the competition between horizontal advection effect and eddy pumping effect. The Kuroshio current influences the distribution patterns of isotherms and isohalines and enhances background temperature and salinity horizontal gradients on both sides of the LS, determining the orientations of dipole temperature and salinity structures within eddies.

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Acknowledgments

This study is a contribution to the international IMBER project. The daily SLA data were provided by the AVISO data project, and the daily satellite AVHRR SST data were obtained from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Argo float profiles were downloaded from the China Argo Real-time Data Center, and the Argo-only version of CARS was from the CSIRO (http://www.marine.csiro.au/atlas/).

Funding

This work was jointly funded by the State Key R&D project (grant no. 2016YFA0601103), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 41776015 and 41276007), and President Research Award (2013121047).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for Coastal Ecology and Environmental Studies, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

    Wen-Zhou Zhang & Qinbiao Ni

  2. State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, SOA, Hangzhou, China

    Wen-Zhou Zhang

  3. Department of Physical Oceanography, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, Fujian, China

    Wen-Zhou Zhang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, CAS, Guangzhou, China

    Huijie Xue

  5. School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

    Huijie Xue

Authors
  1. Wen-Zhou Zhang
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  2. Qinbiao Ni
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  3. Huijie Xue
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wen-Zhou Zhang.

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Responsible Editor: Sung Yong Kim

This article is part of the Topical Collection on the 9th International Workshop on Modeling the Ocean (IWMO), Seoul, Korea, 3–6 July 2017

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Zhang, WZ., Ni, Q. & Xue, H. Composite eddy structures on both sides of the Luzon Strait and influence factors. Ocean Dynamics 68, 1527–1541 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-018-1207-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-018-1207-z

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