Numerical investigation of the control factors driving Zhe-Min Coastal Current

Decadal Variation in Winter‐Spring Thermal Front to the Zhejiang‐Fujian Coast and Its Mechanism

“…Over these two decades, enhanced northeast winds occurred in the coastal regions, serving as the direct mechanisms for the intensification of ZFCC. These wind anomalies have also been mentioned in a previous study investigating the influence of large-scale climate signals on winter SST anomalies along the eastern Chinese coast (Zhang, Chai, et al, 2022;Zhang, Zhao et al, 2022). Concerning the eastern boundary, the Q v features an increasing trend, suggesting more warm water flowed into the area during 2002-2022.…”

“…Zhang, Chai, et al. (2022) further observed a more pronounced cooling trend in the Taiwan Strait region during winter, with significant associations with the interdecadal signals of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Beyond the regulations of the large‐scale signals (e.g., PDO, ENSO), we believe that local dynamics have equivalent crucial impacts on the trend.…”

“…In the current study, the impacts of riverine inputs on coastal SST were mainly twofold: The increased terrigenous river runoff entering the regional sea directly cools the waters and results in a larger volume of freshwater‐carrying ZFCC. Previous studies highlighted that buoyancy forcing plays an equally important role as alongshore winds in driving ZFCC and ultimately determines the southern boundary of the ZFCC water (Zhang, Chai, et al., 2022). Consequently, the ZFCC, which contains a higher proportion of low salinity water, experiences stronger buoyancy forcing, allowing more cold water from the north to be transported to the southern regions, further cooling the water column along the coast.…”

“…The conversion of the ZFCF around the beginning of the twenty‐first century is closely associated with the transition from acceleration period of global warming (1970s to later 1990s) to warming hiatus (Liao et al., 2015; Trenberth et al., 2014) since the ZFCF is directly modulated by the seawater temperature. The ECS, where ZFCF is located, is recognized as a region prone to amplifying responses to global climate change (Belkin & Lee, 2014; Kim et al., 2018; Tan et al., 2021; Zhang, Chai, et al., 2022; Zhang, Zhao, et al, 2022). Previous studies revealed that the variabilities of the East Asia Winter Monsoon (EAWM) and KC are pivotal in triggering this reversal trend (Cai et al., 2017; Tan et al., 2021), which consisted well with our discussions about the decadal variations of the ZFCF induced by the regional SST variability.…”