Submesoscale eddies in the South China Sea

Ni, Qinbiao, Zhai, Xiaoming, Wilson, Chris, Chen, Changlin and Chen, Dake (2021) Submesoscale eddies in the South China Sea. Geophysical Research Letters, 48 (6). ISSN 0094-8276

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Abstract

Submesoscale eddies are often seen in high‐resolution satellite‐derived ocean color images. To efficiently identify these eddies from surface chlorophyll data, here, we develop an automatic submesoscale eddy detection method and apply it to the South China Sea. The detected submesoscale eddies are found to have a radius of 13 ± 5 km and an aspect ratio of 0.5 ± 0.2, with a notable predominance of cyclones. Further investigation reveals that the surface structure of these eddies displays a unique “cat's‐eye” pattern, and the eddies become more circular with increasing eddy radius. Submesoscale eddies can strongly regulate surface chlorophyll via horizontal advection while they have less coherent signatures in sea surface temperature. These findings may help to improve submesoscale parameterizations in Earth system models.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	south china sea,statistical characteristics,submesoscale eddies,surface structure,tracer distribution,geophysics,earth and planetary sciences(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1908
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	26 Jan 2021 00:56
Last Modified:	21 Dec 2022 03:37
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/78277
DOI:	10.1029/2020GL091555

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