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The summertime circulation of the Bohai Sea simulated from a high-resolution wave-tide-circulation coupled model

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Abstract

The Bohai Sea is a shallow semi-enclosed inner sea with an average depth of 18 m and is located at the west of the northern Yellow Sea. The climatological circulation pattern in summer of the Bohai Sea is studied by using a wave-tide-circulation coupled model. The simulated temperature and the circulation agree with the observation well. The result shows that the circulation pattern of the Bohai Sea is jointly influenced by the tidal residual current, wind and baroclinic current. There exists an obvious density current along the temperature front from the west part of the Liaodong Bay to the offshore area of the Huanghe Estuary. In the Liaodong Bay there exists a clockwise gyre in the area north to the 40°N. While in the area south to the 40°N the circulation shows a two-gyre structure, the flow from the offshore area of the Huanghe Estuary to the Liaodong Bay splits into two branches in the area between 39°N and 40°N. The west branch turns into north-west and forms an anti-clockwise gyre with the south-westward density current off the west of the Liaodong Bay. The east branch turns to the east and forms a clockwise gyre with the flow along the east coast of the Liaodong Bay. The forming mechanism of the circulation is also discussed in this paper.

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Correspondence to Jingsong Guo.

Additional information

Foundation item: The National Key Research and Development Program of China under contract Nos 2017YFA0604101, 2016YFB0201103, 2017YFA0604104, 2016YFC0503602, 2016YFC1401403 and 2017YFC1404000; the China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association program under contract No. DY135-E2-1-06; the National Basic Research Program (973 Program) of China under contract No. 2014CB745004; the Ocean Forecast System project of the China-ASEAN Maritime Coopeartion Fund; the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences under contract No. XDA11020301; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 41206025.

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Xia, C., Guo, J., Wang, G. et al. The summertime circulation of the Bohai Sea simulated from a high-resolution wave-tide-circulation coupled model. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 38, 32–37 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-018-1145-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-018-1145-0

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