The Luzon Strait transport (LST) from the Pacific into the South China Sea (SCS) is examined using results from a high-resolution ocean general circulation model. The LST from the model has a mean value of 2.4 Sv (Sv ϵ 10 6 m 3 s Ϫ1) and reaches its seasonal maximum (6.1 Sv westward) in winter and seasonal minimum (0.9 Sv eastward) in summer. Both the annual mean and seasonal variation of LST compare favorably with earlier observations. On an interannual time scale, LST tends to be higher during El Niño years and lower during La Niña years, with its maximum (minimum) leading the mature phase of El Niño (La Niña) by 1 month. The interannual variation of LST appears to be oppositely phased with the Kuroshio transport east of Luzon, indicating a possible nonlinear hysteresis of the Kuroshio as a driving mechanism of LST. For the annual average, water leaving the SCS in the south is of higher temperature than that with LST, thus producing a cooling advection in the upper 405 m equivalent to a surface heat flux of Ϫ19 W m Ϫ2. Most of this cooling advection is balanced by the atmospheric heating (17 W m Ϫ2). From late spring to early fall, surface heat flux is the primary heating process; only a small part of the heat content change can be explained by heat advection. But, in winter, heat advection seems to be the only important process responsible for the cooling in the upper layer of the SCS. The interannual variation of the upper-layer heat content has a strong signature of ENSO, cooling in the development of El Niño and warming in the development of La Niña. An oceanic connection is revealed, in which LST seems to be a key process conveying the impact of the Pacific ENSO into the SCS.

[1] The variation of the North Equatorial Current (NEC) bifurcation is investigated using results from a high-resolution ocean general circulation model (OGCM). The bifurcation occurs at about 15.5°N for the annual average and is easily identifiable in the upper 500 m, but it varies with time and depth. In agreement with recent observations, during the summer season the NEC bifurcation moves equatorward with a weak poleward shift with depth, while a large poleward movement with a poleward shift with depth is found during the winter season. Vertical mode decomposition indicates that the seasonal variation of the NEC bifurcation is dominated by the first two baroclinic modes. On the interannual timescale, the meridional migration of the NEC bifurcation is strongly influenced by El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO); its correlation with the Southern Oscillation Index exceeds 0.8 in magnitude at depths around the thermocline. The NEC bifurcation occurs at its northernmost position during El Niño years and at its southernmost position during La Niña years. This variation is mainly accounted for by westward propagation of upwelling (downwelling) Rossby waves generated by winds in the central equatorial Pacific and by an anomalous anticyclone (cyclone) located in the western North Pacific when a warm (cold) event matures. The interannual variability of the NEC transport is highly correlated with that of the Mindanao Current (MC) and the Kuroshio transports. It is also found that the interannual variability of the NEC bifurcation latitude is highly correlated with the variations of transports in the NEC and the Kuroshio, but is less correlated with transport variations in the MC.

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Variability of the subsurface temperature, current, and heat content in the tropical Pacific Ocean has been extracted in association with the two dominant modes of the sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA): the low-frequency mode and the biennial mode. In a recent paper, these two modes were identified as the major modes of El Nin˜o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The low-frequency mode, which explains about 36% of the total SSTA variability, represents the dominant component of SSTA variability in the tropical Pacific, and is associated not with a fast physical evolution but with a slow stochastic undulation. The biennial mode, which is the second dominant component and explains about 12% of the total variability exhibits, on the other hand, a strong physical evolution. The space-time patterns of the subsurface variability were derived from an assimilated data set via a cyclostationary empirical orthogonal functions (CSEOF) analysis and the regression of the resulting principal component (PC) time series on the target PC time series of the surface modes. Extracted space-time patterns describe the detailed evolution of the physical changes in the upper ocean of the tropical Pacific that are associated with the corresponding surface modes. Specifically, they clearly show the surface and subsurface connection of the physical changes during ENSO events, and the role of equatorial waves in the manifestation of physical changes at the surface. The derived patterns of heat content, subsurface temperature, and zonal current anomalies realistically depict the detailed temporal changes of those variables and are consistent with our understanding of the physics in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The biennial mode appears to depict faithfully the phase progression of El Nin˜o and La Nin˜a. The propagation of equatorial Kelvin waves along the thermocline is clearly visible during El Nin˜o and La Nin˜a events in the cyclostationary representation of the physical modes in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Although the low-frequency mode explains three times more SSTA variability than the biennial mode, the former does not induce strong equatorial wave activity. This observation is significant considering that both El Nin˜o or La Niñ a are often viewed simply in terms of a significant SST change in the tropical Pacific. The results of the present study indicate: (1) that the two ENSO modes represent significantly different physical evolutions; (2) that the amount of SST warming or cooling does not dictate the physical evolution of ENSO; and (3) that the two modes play essentially different dynamical roles including the generation of equatorial waves.