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Tidal and tidal current characteristics in the Guangxi Gulf of Tonkin, South China Sea

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Abstract

The Guangxi Gulf of Tonkin (GXGT) is rich in mineral, oceanic energy, and biological resources; however, it has not attracted much attention. Based on ECOMSED, a high-resolution three-dimensional numerical model is constructed in this study, and the accuracy is validated using long-term observational data. The results showed that the GXGT is dominated by regular diurnal tide and mixed mainly diurnal tidal currents and some regions to the northwest and south of Weizhou Island are dominant by mixed mainly semi-diurnal tidal currents. Furthermore, the rotation direction of O1 is found to be counter-clockwise and clockwise in the western and eastern domains, respectively, whereas the rotation directions of the other three tidal constituents are clockwise and counter-clockwise in the open sea and coastal bays, respectively. Similarly, the propagation direction of the tidal energy flux of O1 (northwestward) is different from them of the other three tidal constituents (northeastward) in the western GXGT. On the other hand, the propagation directions of the four tidal constituents are all northeastward in the eastern GXGT. A comparison of the reference run with the summed-up effect of six runs, where each of the tidal constituents has been considered separately, revealed that the nonlinear effect due to the interaction of the six tidal constituents cannot be neglected in the GXGT, especially in the western GXGT. Interestingly, energy input from wind to O1 is larger than that to M2 whereas the tidal dissipation of O1 is less than that of M2 at BBL. Additionally, tidally induced residual currents mostly flow westward in the GXGT, with clockwise eddies present outside the Qinzhou Bay and Tieshan Port. Driven by the monsoon wind, the current structure and strength in the GXGT have obvious seasonal variation. And sensitive experiments show that the residual currents in the GXGT are deeply influenced by the monsoon wind and bottom topography.

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Funding

This work is jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41566001, 41406044), Guangxi Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 2018GXNSFDA281031, 2015GXNSFCA139023, 2016JJF15001), Guangxi Science and Technology Development Program (Guikegong 1598016-8), Guangxi Science and Technology Major Project (Guike AA18118025), The Opening Foundation of Key Laboratory of Environment Change and Resources Use in Beibu Gulf Ministry of Education and Guangxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Intelligent Simulation (No. NNU-KLOP-X1902), Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region: Guangxi Specially invited Experts, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Marine Disaster in the Beibu Gulf, Qinzhou University (No. 2017KF02), and the Fundamental Research Funds of Guangxi Academy of Sciences (Grant No. 2017YJJ23005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Environment Change and Resources Use in Beibu Gulf, Ministry of Education, Nanning Normal University, Nanning, 530001, China

    Jingsong Gao, Guidan Wu & Baoqing Hu

  2. Guangxi Coastal Key laboratory of Marine Environment Science, Guangxi Academy of Sciences, Nanning, 530007, Guangxi, China

    Jingsong Gao & Donglin Zhu

  3. Fourth Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Beihai, Guangxi, China

    Haibo Huang

Authors
  1. Jingsong Gao
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  2. Donglin Zhu
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  3. Guidan Wu
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  4. Baoqing Hu
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  5. Haibo Huang
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Correspondence to Jingsong Gao.

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Responsible Editor: Birgit Andrea Klein

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Gao, J., Zhu, D., Wu, G. et al. Tidal and tidal current characteristics in the Guangxi Gulf of Tonkin, South China Sea. Ocean Dynamics 69, 1037–1051 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-019-01294-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-019-01294-y

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