Observation of a Pair of Anticyclonic Vortices in the Northern Part of the South China Sea in the Autumn of 1994

摘要

A remarkable meso-scale anticyclonic vortex pair in the northern part of the South China Sea (SCS) from later August to early September 1994 is documented by the in situ observation data. Their spatial structures were examined in detail from the horizontal and two nearly perpendicular vertical angles of view. The horizontal scales of these two vortices were around 100 km, 50 km, and their vertical scales were about 500 m, 1000 m, respectively. Two "warm core" structures associated with these two vortices were found in their horizontal and vertical analyses. The closer spacing of these two vortices (namely 60 km), which was smaller than the Rossby radius of deformation, suggested that they might merge with each other during their next evolutionary stages and form into a larger vortex eventually.