Satellite Observation on the Exceptional Intrusion of Cold Water in the Taiwan Strait

Abstract

We used sat el lite-de rived sea sur face tem per a ture (SST) data for the win ters of 1996 -2008 to ex am ine the ex cep tional in tru sion of China Coastal Cur rent into the Tai wan Strait. The long term ob ser va tion re veals that, in 1999 and 2000, the strong wind (> 6 m s -1 ) lasted for 12 and 16 days with a drop of 5.35 and 5.5°C in SST, re spec tively. The sat el lite data also showed that the China Coastal Cur rent in truded from the north of the Chang-Yuen Ridge into the wa ters sur round ing the Peng-Hu Is lands, with wind speeds of more than 6.7 m s -1 lasted for 30 days dur ing the same pe riod. The ex cep tional in tru sion re sulted in the min i mum SST of 12.6°C on 16 Feb ru ary 2008, 7.8°C lower than the 12-year av er age of Feb ru ary (20.4°C). The higher SST (> 18°C) ap peared af ter 21 Feb ru ary 2008 in di cat ing the north ward with drawal of the cold wa ter. Dur ing the pe riod of 15 -21 Feb ru ary 2008, the China Coastal Cur rent in truded to as far south as the water around Peng-Hu Islands.To com pare the El Niño/La Niña events with re gard to SST and wind speed, we found that SST was warmer in the El Niño

The impacts of 2008 snowstorm in China on the ecological environments in the Northern South China Sea

“…The temperature difference is larger in winter and smaller in summer, and is largest in February and August. The peak of the temperature difference between offshore and coastal waters in February 2008 was up to 8.72 C ( Figure A3(b)), consistent with in situ measurements (Chang et al 2009(Chang et al , 2013. It indicates that the impact of land low temperature on the SST in the study area was stronger in winter, and even stronger in the coastal waters than in the offshore waters due to strong SLI.…”

“…This colder diluted water turned to the south along the bank of the Zhejiang and formed MZCW by the northeast monsoon as Figure 2(e), which was the same as Pan and Tang (Pan et al 1997;Tang & Wang 2004). Simultaneously, the discharge from YRE extended offshore and intruded to the southwest (Chang et al 2009(Chang et al , 2013Liao et al 2013;Zhu et al 2013), mixing with the MZCW and flowing into NSCS as Figure 2(c-e). At the same time, the annual mean discharge of the PRE is about 3. to the east and the shelf area (Lu et al 2013; Figure 9(a)), bringing lots of suspended sand and nutrients into the NSCS.…”

“…First, the discharge from YRE extended offshore and intruded to the southwest (Chang et al 2009(Chang et al , 2013Liao et al 2013;Zhu et al 2013), mixing with the MZCW and flowing into NSCS, as given in Figure 2(c-e). From before to after snowstorm, the larger runoff from YRE and PRE caused by the heavy rainfall and melting snow and ice (as in Figure 5(c)) and stronger northeast monsoon ( Figure 9) would lead to much diffusion of the cold water with high SSC in the coastal waters to the offshore waters, while much stronger diffusion and advection would carry large amount of sand from the coast to the offshore, which promoted the increase of SSC in the offshore waters.…”

“…This disaster was extremely severe in terms of its spatial extent, duration and damage, affecting Shanghai (SH), Zhejiang (Zhe), Fujian (Min), Anhui (Wan), Guangdong (Yue), Henan (Yu), Jiangxi (Gan), Jiangshu (Shu), Hunan (Xiang), Guizhou (Qian) and Guangxi (Gui), among other areas, and causing substantial mortality of wild fish and 80% loss of caged Mariculture fish (Chang et al 2009(Chang et al , 2013. The damaged area of the fishery industry in Guangdong province exceeded 0.17 million hectares and the economic losses to the fishery industry were as high as 6 billion Yuan.…”

Long-term variability of sea surface temperature in Taiwan Strait

“…Indeed, the warming rate of the Taiwan Strait is comparable with that of the ECS and much exceeds the warming rates of the Kuroshio and SCS (Belkin 2009). The crucial role of CCC in regulating the hydrography of the Taiwan Strait was amply demonstrated by the 2008 cold disaster caused by southward invasion of the CCC waters, when SST dropped by almost 8°C vs. a 12-year mean February SST, causing substantial mortality of wild fish and a 80 % loss of caged mariculture fish (Chang et al 2009. The Kuroshio impact is limited by the southeastern part of the Strait, where in summer the SCS Warm Current flows northward alongside the Kuroshio branch (Jan et al 2002; Fig.…”