South China Sea Warm Pool in Boreal Spring

Abstract

During the boreal spring of 1966, a warm-core eddy is identified in the upper South China Sea (SCS) west of the Philippines through an analysis of the U.S. Navy's Master Oceanographic Observation Data Set. This eddy occurred before the development of the northern summer monsoon and disappeared afterward. We propose that this eddy is a result of the radiative warming during spring and the downwelling due to the anticyclonic forcing at the surface. Our hypothesis suggests an air-sea feedback scenario that may explain the development and withdrawal of the summer monsoon over the SCS. The development phase of the warm-core eddy in this hypothesis is tested by using the Princeton Ocean model.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1997
Accession Number
ADA481243

Entities

People

  • C. P. Chang
  • Peter Cheng Chu

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Atmospheric Sciences
  • Availability
  • Classification
  • Contracts
  • Data Sets
  • Feedback
  • Information Operations
  • Instructions
  • Landforms
  • Monitoring
  • Observation
  • Oceanography
  • Oceans
  • Philippines
  • South China Sea

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Oceanography.