Different sea level variations in the South China Sea in response to two types of El Niño

Luo Fengyun; Tan Wei; Li Juan; Zuo Juncheng; Mei Yuli; Ji Qiyan; Li Zhilong; Zhuang Yuan

doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-4193.2020.03.004

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Luo Fengyun，Tan Wei，Li Juan, et al. Different sea level variations in the South China Sea in response to two types of El Niño[J]. Haiyang Xuebao，2020, 42(3)：36–46，doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253−4193.2020.03.004

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Different sea level variations in the South China Sea in response to two types of El Niño

doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0253-4193.2020.03.004

1.
Marine Science and Technology College, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan 316022, China
2.
College of Ocean Science and Engineering , Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
3.
Laboratory for Regional Oceanography and Numerical Modeling, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao 266237, China
4.
Shanghai Administration Center for Ocean Affairs, Shanghai 200050, China

Received Date: 2019-04-26
Rev Recd Date: 2019-07-14

Available Online: 2020-11-18

Publish Date: 2020-03-25

Abstract

Abstract

Using the ECMWF ORAS4 reconstruction data, the different response characteristics of the South China Sea Sea Level Anomaly (SLA) to the Eastern Pacific (EP) El Niño and the Central Pacific (CP) El Niño were analyzed. The South China Sea SLA showed different spatial and temporal evolution during the two types of El Niño. For the EP El Niño, the average SLA in the South China Sea decreased significantly in the autumn and winter of the developing year, with a minimum of −2 cm, and began to rise in the following year, up to 2 cm in the following winter. In terms of spatial distribution, in the autumn and winter of developing year, except for the existence of a positive anomaly to the southeast of Vietnam, in most of the South China Sea, SLAs are characterized by significant negative anomalies; from the spring of the following year, SLA negatively weakens, while the southeastern part of Vietnam was beginning to develop abnormally until the majority of the South China Sea is dominated by positive anomalies. For the CP El Niño, the South China Sea SLA showed significant negative anomalies throughout the El Niño development and decline, the outliers were always maintained at around −2 cm, and spatially represented as a consistent negative anomaly of the whole basin. Compared with the traditional empirical orthogonal decomposition (EOF), the seasonal EOF (S-EOF) can better characterize the temporal and spatial evolution of the South China Sea SLA during the two types of El Niño. The first mode of the S-EOF is CP El Niño mode, while the second mode is more characterized by the evolution of the South China Sea SLA during the EP El Niño. The different variations of the South China Sea SLA during the two types of El Niño are mainly due to the thermal specific volume effect caused by the thermal advection transport anomaly at the channel, but the contribution of the thermosteric sea level is mainly concentrated in the interior South China Sea. While in the coastal regions, such as the western South China Sea, the mechanism of sea level change needs further study.
- EP El Niño,
- CP El Niño,
- sea level variation in the South China Sea,
- thermosteric sea level

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