Mesoscale variability in the South China Sea from TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetry data

摘要

Using wavelet transform we study the mesoscale variability in the South China Sea by analyzing 5-year (October of 1992 to October of 1997) TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetry data. Our analysis suggests that mesoscale variability inside the South China Sea is much weaker than that outside the South China Sea in the Kuroshio. It is found that inside the South China Sea there are two bands of significant mesoscale variability. The stronger one lies along the western boundary north of 11deg N. The weaker one is oriented in a southwest-to-northeast direction across the central South China Sea north of 11 deg N. In the rest of the South China Sea, the mesoscale variability is much weaker. In addition, our analysis indicates that the mesoscale variability has a large temporal variation in both its intensity and spreading in the frequency band.