Sea Surface Height and Current Responses to Synoptic Winter Wind in the Bohai, Yellow, and East China Seas: Two Leading Coastal Trapped Waves

High interannual sea surface temperature anomalies of more than 2°C were recorded along the coasts of Angola and Namibia between October 2019 and January 2020. This extreme coastal warm event that has been classified as a Benguela Niño, reached its peak amplitude in November 2019 in the Angola Benguela front region. In contrast to classical Benguela Niños, the 2019 Benguela Niño was generated by a combination of local and remote forcing. In September 2019, a local warming was triggered by positive anomalies of near coastal wind-stress curl leading to downwelling anomalies through Ekman dynamics off Southern Angola and by anomalously weak winds reducing the latent heat loss by the ocean south of 15°S. In addition, downwelling coastal trapped waves were observed along the African coast between mid-October 2019 and early January 2020. Those coastal trapped waves might have partly emanated from the equatorial Atlantic as westerly wind anomalies were observed in the central and eastern equatorial Atlantic between end of September to early December 2019. Additional forcing for the downwelling coastal trapped waves likely resulted from an observed weakening of the prevailing coastal southerly winds along the Angolan coast north of 15°S between October 2019 and mid-February 2020. During the peak of the event, latent heat flux damped the sea surface temperature anomalies mostly in the Angola Benguela front region. In the eastern equatorial Atlantic, relaxation of cross-equatorial southerly winds might have contributed to the equatorial warming in November 2019 during the peak of the 2019 Benguela Niño. Moreover, for the first time, moored velocities off Angola (11°S) revealed a coherent poleward flow in the upper 100 m in October and November 2019 suggesting a contribution of meridional heat advection to the near-surface warming during the early stages of the Benguela Niño. During the Benguela Niño, a reduction of net primary production in the Southern Angola and Angola Benguela front regions was observed.

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Sea-surface temperature fronts in the Yellow and East China Seas from TRMM microwave imager data

Deep Sea Research Part II Topical Studies in Oceanography ◽

10.1016/j.dsr2.2010.02.003 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 57 (11-12) ◽

pp. 1017-1024 ◽

Cited By ~ 47

Author(s):

Daji Huang ◽

Tao Zhang ◽

Feng Zhou

Keyword(s):

Surface Temperature ◽

Sea Surface Temperature ◽

Sea Surface ◽

East China ◽

China Seas ◽

Microwave Imager ◽

Trmm Microwave Imager

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Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies of the Yellow and East China Seas in July of 2020

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202122802006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 228 ◽

pp. 02006

Author(s):

Bin Wang ◽

Lei Wu

Keyword(s):

Heat Flux ◽

Surface Temperature ◽

Sea Surface Temperature ◽

East China Sea ◽

Sea Surface ◽

East China ◽

Westerly Wind ◽

China Seas ◽

The East China Sea ◽

China Sea

With the global warming, the long term variations of sea surface temperature and its anomalies in the Yellow and East China Seas, especially for the July of 2020 due to the abnormally torrential rain along Changjiang/Yangtze River Valley, have been investigated based on the Merged Satellite and In-situ Data Global Daily sea surface temperature (MGDSST) provided by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) using the methods of composite and correlation analyses. The results suggest, contrary to warming anomalies in the North-western Pacifica Ocean, the sea surface temperature in the East China Sea is cooler around 0.5°C and that in the East China Sea is cooler around 1.3°C than the normal values. The sea surface temperatures approach the extreme low value in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea in July, and warm up to the normal year in August. In addition, the south-westerly summer monsoon over this region, is proposed to contribute the transport of Kuroshio and its pathway. The obvious westerly wind anomalies, correspond to the lower sea surface temperature over the Yellow and East China Seas in July of 2020, leads to a clear less heat advection from Kuroshio to this region. Further, the low sea surface temperature, leading a downward air motion with a convergence at near sea surface level, is helpful for the enhance of the westerly wind anomalies until the strong surface heat flux in August. This study suggests that the local horizontal circulation advection and net heat flux are also dominated on the heat content of the East China waters. Further quantitative studies are worth conducting.

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