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Characteristics and influencing factors of frontal upwelling in the Yellow Sea in summer

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  • Physical Oceanography, Marine Meteorology and Marine Physics
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Abstract

Frontal upwelling is an important phenomenon in summer in the Yellow Sea (YS) and plays an essential role in the distribution of nutrients and biological species. In this paper, a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model is applied to investigate the characteristics and influencing factors of frontal upwelling in the YS. The results show that the strength and distribution of frontal upwelling are largely dependent on the topography and bottom temperature fronts. The frontal upwelling in the YS is stronger and narrower near the eastern coast than near the western coast due to the steeper shelf slope. Moreover, external forcings, such as the meridional wind speed and air temperature in summer and the air temperature in the preceding winter and spring, have certain influences on the strength of frontal upwelling. An increase in air temperature in the previous winter and spring weakens the frontal upwelling in summer; in contrast, an increase in air temperature in summer strengthens the frontal upwelling. When the southerly wind in summer increases, the upwelling intensifies in the western YS and weakens in the eastern YS. The air temperature influences the strength of upwelling by changing the baroclinicity in the frontal region. Furthermore, the meridional wind speed in summer affects frontal upwelling via Ekman pumping.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the technology support provided by High Performance Computing Center, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Funding

The National Key Research and Development Project under contract No. 2017YFC1403400; the National Key Research and Development Program of China under contract No. 2016YFC1402501; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 41806164; the Open Fund Project of Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Information Technology, Ministry of Natural Resources; the Shandong Joint Fund for Marine Science Research Centers under contract No. U1406401.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Fan Sun, Fei Yu, Guangcheng Si, Jianfeng Wang, Anqi Xu, Jun Pan & Ying Tang

  2. Tianjin Navigation Instruments Research Institute, Tianjin, 300131, China

    Fan Sun

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Fan Sun, Fei Yu, Guangcheng Si, Jianfeng Wang, Anqi Xu, Jun Pan & Ying Tang

  4. Key Laboratory of Ocean Circulation and Waves, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Fan Sun, Fei Yu, Guangcheng Si, Jianfeng Wang, Anqi Xu, Jun Pan & Ying Tang

  5. Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Fei Yu

  6. Laboratory for Ocean Dynamics and Climate, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao, 266237, China

    Fei Yu

  7. Center for Marine Environmental Engineering, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Jun Pan

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  1. Fan Sun
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Correspondence to Fei Yu.

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Sun, F., Yu, F., Si, G. et al. Characteristics and influencing factors of frontal upwelling in the Yellow Sea in summer. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 41, 84–96 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-021-1967-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-021-1967-z

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