The Taiwan Strait (TS) directly connects two of the richest fishing grounds in the world - the East China Sea (ECS) and the South China Sea (SCS). Carbon and nutrient supplies are essential for ...primary production and the Yangtze River is an important source for the ECS. However the ECS is severely P-limited. The TS transports an order of magnitude more carbon and a factor of two more phosphate (P) to the ECS than the Yangtze River does. To evaluate the temporal variability of these supplies, the total alkalinity (TA), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), nitrate plus nitrite (N), P, and silicate (Si) fluxes through the TS were estimated using empirical equations for these parameters and the current velocity, which was estimated using the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). These empirical equations were derived from in situ salinity and temperature and measured chemical concentrations that were collected during 57 cruises (1995-2014) with a total of 2096 bottle samples. The 24-month moving averages of water, carbon, and nutrient fluxes significantly increase with time, so does the satellite chlorophyll a concentration. More importantly, the increased supply of the badly needed P from the TS is more than that from the Yangtze River.
Abstract
Five large-amplitude internal solitary waves (ISWs) propagating westward on the upper continental slope in the northern South China Sea were observed in May–June 2011 with nearly full-depth ...measurements of velocity, temperature, salinity, and density. As they shoaled, at least three waves reached the convective breaking limit: along-wave current velocity exceeded the wave propagation speed C. Vertical overturns of ~100 m were observed within the wave cores; estimated turbulent kinetic energy was up to 1.5 × 10−4 W kg−1. In the cores and at the pycnocline, the gradient Richardson number was mostly <0.25. The maximum ISW vertical displacement was 173 m, 38% of the water depth. The normalized maximum vertical displacement was ~0.4 for three convective breaking ISWs, in agreement with laboratory results for shoaling ISWs. Observed ISWs had greater available potential energy (APE) than kinetic energy (KE). For one of the largest observed ISWs, the total wave energy per unit meter along the wave crest E was 553 MJ m−1, more than three orders of magnitude greater than that observed on the Oregon Shelf. Pressure work contributed 77% and advection contributed 23% of the energy flux. The energy flux nearly equaled CE. The Dubriel–Jacotin–Long model with and without a background shear predicts neither the observed APE > KE nor the subsurface maximum of the along-wave velocity for shoaling ISWs, but does simulate the total energy and the wave shape. Including the background shear in the model results in the formation of a surface trapped core.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The release of anthropogenic radiocesium to the North Pacific Ocean (NPO) has occurred in the past 60 years. Factors controlling
Cs (half-life, 30.2 year) and
Cs (half-life, 2.06 year) activity ...concentrations in the Kuroshio east of Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait (latitude 20° N-27° N, longitude 116° E-123° E) remain unclear. This study collected seawater samples throughout this region and analyzed
Cs and
Cs activity concentrations between 2018 and 2019. A principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to analyze the controlling factors of radiocesium. Results of all
Cs activity concentrations were below the detection limit (0.5 Bq m
). Analyses of water column
Cs profiles revealed a primary concentration peak (2.1-2.2 Bq m
) at a depth range of 200-400 m (potential density σ
25.3 to 26.1 kg m
). The PCA result suggests that this primary peak was related to density layers in the water column. A secondary
Cs peak (1.90 Bq m
) was observed in the near-surface waters (σ
= 18.8 to 21.4 kg m
) and was possibly related to upwelling and river-to-sea mixing on the shelf. In the Taiwan Strait,
Cs activity concentrations in the near-surface waters were higher in the summer than in the winter. We suggest that upwelling facilitates the vertical transport of
Cs at the shelf break of the western NPO.
Abstract
Large-amplitude (100–200 m) nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs) were observed on the continental slope in the northern South China Sea nearly diurnally during the spring tide. The evolution of ...one NLIW as it propagated up the continental slope is described. The NLIW arrived at the slope as a nearly steady-state solitary depression wave. As it propagated up the slope, the wave propagation speed C decreased dramatically from 2 to 1.3 m s−1, while the maximum along-wave current speed Umax remained constant at 2 m s−1. As Umax exceeded C, the NLIW reached its breaking limit and formed a subsurface trapped core with closed streamlines in the coordinate frame of the propagating wave. The trapped core consisted of two counter-rotating vortices feeding a jet within the core. It was highly turbulent with 10–50-m density overturnings caused by the vortices acting on the background stratification, with an estimated turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate of O(10−4) W kg−1 and an eddy diffusivity of O(10−1) m2 s−1. The core mixed continually with the surrounding water and created a wake of mixed water, observed as an isopycnal salinity anomaly. As the trapped core formed, the NLIW became unsteady and dissipative and broke into a large primary wave and a smaller wave. Although shoaling alone can lead to wave fission, the authors hypothesize that the wave breaking and the trapped core evolution may further trigger the fission process. These processes of wave fission and dissipation continued so that the NLIW evolved from a single deep-water solitary wave as it approached the continental slope into a train of smaller waves on the Dongsha Plateau. Observed properties, including wave width, amplitude, and propagation speed, are reasonably predicted by a fully nonlinear steady-state internal wave model, with better agreement in the deeper water. The agreement of observed and modeled propagation speed is improved when a reasonable vertical profile of background current is included in the model.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Typhoon is a major cause of multiple disasters in coastal regions of East Asia. To advance our understanding of typhoon-ocean interactions and thus to improve the typhoon forecast for the disaster ...mitigation, two data buoys were deployed in the western North Pacific, which captured Super Typhoon Nepartak (equivalent to Category 5) in July 2016 at distances <20 km from the typhoon's eye center. Here we demonstrate that the unprecedented dataset combined with the modeling results provide new insights into the rapid temperature drop (~1.5 °C in 4 h) and the dramatic strengthening of velocity shear in the mixed layer and below as the driving mechanism for this rapid cooling during the direct influence period of extremely strong winds. The shear instability and associated strong turbulence mixing further deepened the mixed layer to ~120 m. Our buoys also observed that inertial oscillations appeared before the direct wind influence period.
Abstract
The South China Sea (SCS) is a high biodiversity region in the world ocean, supports abundant marine resources to the peripheral nations, and affects weather/climate in southeast Asia. A ...better understanding of its circulation is important to better prediction and management of the SCS. Here we reveal sizable intraseasonal oscillations at period ~ 50 days between May and November 2017 in the acoustic Doppler current profiler observed velocity in the central SCS. Satellite observed wind and sea level data together with a process-oriented numerical experiment suggest that the oscillations were caused by locally-generated and remotely-penetrated westward-propagating Rossby waves. The summer southwesterly monsoon strengthening/weakening and the resultant Ekman pumping velocity and shoreward Ekman transport increase/decrease and consequent coastal sea level rise/fall off the west coast of Palawan create westward-propagating Rossby waves causing velocity oscillations in the central SCS. Besides the local generation, Rossby waves with sea level anomaly > 0.2 m propagating from the Pacific through the Sulu Sea into the SCS could contribute to the intraseasonal velocity oscillations in the central SCS.
The sustainable development of society depends on the reliable supply of electricity while keeping impacts on the environment to a minimum. A 951 MWe nuclear power plant in the semi-enclosed Nanwan ...Bay at the southern tip of Taiwan began operating in May 1984. Part of the bay is in Kenting National Park, which is known for its coral reefs and abundant marine life; thus, thermal pollution from the cooling water discharge is a great concern. Fortunately, the bay opens south to face the Luzon Strait, where the world’s strongest internal tides are generated. Because the bay is deep enough, internal waves bring up cold deep water and reduce the surface temperature by as much as 10 °C for a few hours every day. These internal waves and topographically generated upwelling also bring nutrients to the euphotic layer from the depths, but the upwelled waters quickly leave the bay along with the cooling water. As a result, a thermal plume with a temperature of 1 °C or higher than the ambient temperature only covers 1 km. By way of comparison, El Niño—Southern Oscillation- or Pacific Decadal Oscillation-related interannual variations in temperature are as high as 5 °C. The rapid turnover of the upwelled waters also helps to prevent heat released by the power plant from accumulating and diminishes the thermal stress, thus sustaining corals and other marine life forms. Typhoons, even hundreds of kilometers away, could also induce the upwelling of cold subsurface water. Consecutive typhoons have been observed to reduce the water surface temperature by up to 10 °C for two weeks or longer. Furthermore, the currents are such that the thermal plume flows out of the bay most of the time. All of these factors make the surface waters in the bay about 0.5 °C cooler than the waters outside of the bay, despite the operation of a nearby nuclear power plant.
•Tropical cyclone recorded concurrently in geophysical and oceanographic instruments.•Inertial temperature variations at 3000 m seafloor one day before arrival of cyclone.•Inertial and tidal internal ...waves generate turbulence with >200 m overturns.
The impact of large atmospheric disturbances on deep benthic communities is not well known quantitatively. Observations are scarce but may reveal specific processes leading to turbulent disturbances. Here, we present high-resolution deep-ocean observations to study potential turbulent mixing by a large atmospheric disturbance. We deployed an array of 100-Hz sampling-rate geophysical broadband Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBSs) on the seafloor. Within the footprint of this array we also deployed an oceanographic 0.5-Hz sampling-rate vertical temperature sensor string covering the water phase between 7 and 207 m above the seafloor at about 3000 m depth off eastern Taiwan between June 2017 and April 2018. In September 2017, all instruments recorded Category 4 cyclone Typhoon Talim’s passage northeast of the array one day ahead of the cyclone’s closest approach when the cyclone’s eye was more than 1,000 km away. For 10 days, a group of near-inertial motions appeared most clearly in temperature. The group contained the largest inertial amplitudes in the ten month time series, and which led to turbulence dissipation rates O(10−7 m2 s−3). The observation reflects the importance of barotropic response to a cyclone and the propagation of inertio-gravity waves in weak density stratification. In addition to internal tides, these waves drove turbulent overturns larger than 200 m that were concurrently recorded by OBSs. The turbulent signals were neither due to seismic activity nor to ocean-surface wave action. Cyclones can generate not only microseisms and earth hums, as well as turbulence in the water column, producing additional ground motions. Quantified turbulence processes may help constrain models on sediment resuspension and its effect on deep-sea benthic life.
Tropical cyclones (TCs) cause severe natural hazards and drive intense upper ocean cooling through a series of oceanic and atmospheric physical processes, including vertical mixing and upwelling. ...Among these processes, TC-induced warming of near-surface waters in the open ocean has rarely been noted. This study provides a detailed analysis of upper ocean responses to 30 TC events observed by two buoys in the western North Pacific between 2016 and 2021. Supplemented with numerical experiments, we suggest that downwelling frequently occurs at the periphery of upwelling regions (around the radius of the 34 knot wind speed) following the passage of a TC. Downwelling is identified via pronounced warm anomalies under a shallow mixed layer depth, and its dynamics are attributed to negative wind stress curl and current-induced convergence. These findings highlight the important role played by TC-induced downwelling and offer insights for reconsidering the influence of TCs on biogeochemical processes.
Abstract
Four current-meter moorings and 12 pressure sensor–equipped inverted echo sounders (PIES) were deployed during summer 2011 in the South China Sea. The goal of the experiment was to obtain ...synoptic observations of the large-amplitude nonlinear internal waves from the near field to the far field as they propagated west-northwest across the sea. The program was unique because it was the first to observe the latitudinal variability of the wave crests in addition to the transformations along a single east–west transect. The waves were strongest down the center of the PIES array along roughly 20°45′N and were weaker off axis in both directions. Both a-waves and b-waves arrived earlier in the south than the north, but with different lag times indicating different propagation directions and therefore different sources. The waves were classified by their arrival patterns and source locations and not by their amplitude or packet structure. The Stanford Unstructured Nonhydrostatic Terrain-Following Adaptive Navier–Stokes Simulator (SUNTANS) model, calibrated against the array, showed that the a-waves developed out of the internal tide spawned in the southern portion of the Luzon Strait and the b-waves originated in the north. The northern tides were refracted and suffered large dissipative losses over the shallow portion of the western ridge, whereas the southern tides propagated west-northwest unimpeded, which resulted in a-waves that were larger and appeared sooner than the b-waves. The results were consistent with previous observations that can now be understood in light of the full three-dimensional structure of the internal waves and tides in the northeastern South China Sea.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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