Low-frequency variability of monsoon-driven circulation with application to the South China Sea
Title: Low-frequency variability of monsoon-driven circulation with application to the South China Sea
Journal: Journal of Physical Oceanography, 45: 1632-1650.
Authors: YANG H. -Y.*, L. -X. Wu, S. -T. Sun, and Z. -H. Chen
Abstract:The interannual variability of the upper-ocean circulation forced by seasonally varying monsoonal wind is investigatedin a two-layer quasigeostrophic (QG)model, with the aim to understand the low-frequency variability ofthe South China Sea (SCS) circulation. It is demonstrated that the seasonally varying monsoonal wind can force theupper-ocean circulation with significant internal variability, which is mainly associated with the intrinsic nonlineardynamics of the summer double-gyre system. This arises from the fact that the intrinsic variability, characterized bythe Rossby wave adjustment in the winter single-gyre system, is much weaker than that in the summer double-gyre msystem driven by the intergyre eddy potential vorticity flux through barotropic instability.