Cross-strait cooperation on search and rescue in the Taiwan Strait and its implication for the South China Sea

Maritime search and rescue (SAR) operations are critical for ensuring safety at sea. Islands have been considered as feasible solutions for the construction of new maritime SAR bases to improve the capacity of SAR operations in remote sea areas. This paper proposes a new framework, based on island spatial information, for determining the optimal locations for maritime SAR bases. The framework comprises four steps. First, candidate islands for the construction of maritime SAR bases are selected. Second, the potential rescue demand is estimated by employing ship location data and marine incident data. In the third step, the response time from candidate islands to any site at sea is calculated, with explicit consideration of the impact of sea conditions on the ship’s speed. Fourth, the final island locations are proposed by solving the maximal covering location problem (MCLP). The proposed framework was applied to the South China Sea. The results showed that there would be a decrease of 1.09 h in terms of the mean access time for the South China Sea if the six selected island bases were constructed, whilst the primary coverage increased from 62.63% to 80.02% when using a 6-hour threshold. This new framework is expected to contribute to improvements in safety at sea and should be applicable to any sea area where the construction of island rescue bases is being considered.

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A framework for assessing the capability of maritime search and rescue in the south China sea

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction ◽

10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101568 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 47 ◽

pp. 101568

Author(s):

Xiao Zhou ◽

Liang Cheng ◽

Kaifu Min ◽

Xiaoyi Zuo ◽

Zhaojin Yan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South China Sea ◽

South China ◽

The South China Sea ◽

Search And Rescue ◽

The South ◽

China Sea ◽

Maritime Search And Rescue

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Influence of Remote Internal Tides on the Locally Generated Internal Tides upon the Continental Slope in the South China Sea

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering ◽

10.3390/jmse9111268 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (11) ◽

pp. 1268

Author(s):

Zheng Guo ◽

Anzhou Cao ◽

Shuya Wang

Keyword(s):

South China Sea ◽

Continental Slope ◽

South China ◽

Maximum Energy ◽

The South China Sea ◽

Internal Tides ◽

The South ◽

China Sea ◽

The Taiwan Strait ◽

Local Generation

In this paper, the M2 internal tides (ITs) originating from the continental slope in the South China Sea are studied using the CROCO model. The simulation results show that there are two origins of ITs on the continental slope: at 118°–119.5° E along 22° N near the southern entrance of the Taiwan Strait and at 117°–118° E along 20° N near Dongsha Island. The local generation of ITs is greatly influenced by the ITs that radiate from the Luzon Strait (LS). The integrated conversion at the first generation site is increased by 31% to 0.42 GW compared to the case where the LS is excluded from the simulation region. Its maximum energy flux almost doubles to 2.5 kW/m, which is 10% of the westward component. The existence of the other IT beams from Dongsha Island is attributed to the ITs from the LS. The local generation on the continental slope changes when remotely generated ITs alter the amplitudes and phases of the bottom pressure perturbation. These results indicate that the ITs originating from the LS contribute to the spatial variation of ITs in the SCS by modulating the IT generation on the continental slope.

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Detection of SST fronts from high-resolution model and its preliminary results in the South China Sea

Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology ◽

10.1175/jtech-d-20-0118.1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Shihe Ren ◽

Xueming Zhu ◽

Marie Drevillon ◽

Hui Wang ◽

Yunfei Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

South China Sea ◽

South China ◽

Detection Algorithm ◽

The South China Sea ◽

The South ◽

China Sea ◽

Strip Shape ◽

Seasonal Signals ◽

The Taiwan Strait

AbstractA frontal detection algorithm is developed with the capability of detecting significant frontal segments of sea surface temperature (SST) in the high resolution South China Sea Operational Forecasting System (SCSOFS). In order to effectively obtain frontal information, a gradient-based Canny edge detection algorithm is improved with post-processing designed for high resolution numerical model, aiming at extracting primary ocean fronts, meanwhile ensuring the balance of frontal continuity and positioning accuracy. Metrics of frontal probability and strength are used to measure the robustness of the results in terms of mean state and seasonal variability of frontal activities in the South China Sea (SCS). Most fronts are found in the nearshore and forming a strip shape extending from the Taiwan Strait to the coast of Vietnam. The SCSOFS is found to reproduce strong seasonal signals dominating the variability of the frontal strength and occurrence probability in the SCS. We implement the algorithm on the daily-averaged SST derived from two other SST analyses for inter-comparison in the SCS.

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Subsurface Salinity Balance in the South China Sea*

Journal of Physical Oceanography ◽

10.1175/2007jpo3661.1 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 38 (2) ◽

pp. 527-539 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Zuojun Yu ◽

Julian P. McCreary ◽

Max Yaremchuk ◽

Ryo Furue

Keyword(s):

South China Sea ◽

South China ◽

Luzon Strait ◽

The South China Sea ◽

The South ◽

China Sea ◽

The North ◽

Tropical Water ◽

The Taiwan Strait ◽

The Kuroshio

Abstract The South China Sea (SCS) is often treated as a semienclosed water body, with the Luzon Strait as its only connection to the Pacific Ocean. A branch of the Kuroshio flows northwestward across the Luzon Strait to enter the SCS, carrying North Pacific Tropical Water (NPTW) into the basin. Using the subsurface salinity maximum as a tracer for NPTW, the authors show how important three secondary straits—the Taiwan Strait to the north and the Karimata and Mindoro Straits to the south—are to the NPTW intrusion at the Luzon Strait. The authors demonstrate that the SCS cannot reach an equilibrium state that is consistent with the observed subsurface salinity distribution unless all of the following components are in place: the Kuroshio, transports through the three secondary straits, downward mixing of freshwater, horizontal mixing induced by mesoscale eddies, and forcing by the local monsoonal winds.

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Contrasting responses of phytoplankton productivity between coastal and offshore surface waters in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea to future CO<sub>2</sub>-induced acidification

10.5194/bg-2021-326 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Guang Gao ◽

Tifeng Wang ◽

Jiazhen Sun ◽

Xin Zhao ◽

Lifang Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South China Sea ◽

South China ◽

Surface Waters ◽

Coastal Waters ◽

The South China Sea ◽

Surface Seawater ◽

The South ◽

China Sea ◽

The Taiwan Strait ◽

Induced Changes

Abstract. Future CO2-induced ocean acidification (OA) has been documented to either inhibit or enhance or result in no effect on marine primary productivity (PP). In order to examine effects of OA under multiple drivers, we investigated the influences of OA (a decrease of 0.4 pHtotal units with corresponding CO2 concentrations ranged 22.0–39.7 µM) on PP through deck-incubation experiments at 101 stations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea (SCS), including the coastal zone, the continental shelf and slope, as well as deep-water basin. The daily net primary productivities in surface seawater under incident solar radiation ranged from 17–306 µg C (µg Chl a)−1 d−1, with the responses of PP to OA being region-dependent and the OA-induced changes varying from −88.03 % (inhibition) to 56.87 % (enhancement). The OA-treatment stimulated PP in surface waters of coastal, estuarine and shelf waters, but suppressed it in the South China Sea basin. Such OA-induced changes in PP were significantly related to NOX (the sum of NO3− and NO2−) availability, in situ pH and solar radiation in surface seawater, but negatively related to salinity changes. Our results indicate that phytoplankton cells are more vulnerable to pH drop in oligotrophic waters. Considering high nutrient and low salinity in coastal waters and reduced nutrient availability in pelagic zones with the progressive stratification associated with ocean warming, our results imply that future OA will enhance PP in coastal waters but decrease it in pelagic oligotrophic zones.

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