Climatology and seasonal variability of the Mindan

Authors: Caixia Wang Jian Lan Gang Wang

Publish Date: 2013/07/13

Volume: 32, Issue: 7, Pages: 14-20

PDF Link

Abstract

The simulation of an ocean general circulation model for the earth simulator OFES is transformed to an isopycnal coordinate to investigate the spatial structure and seasonal variability of the Mindanao Undercurrent MUC The results show that 1 potential density surfaces σ θ =265 and σ θ =275 can be chosen to encompass the MUC layer Southern Pacific tropical water SPTW Antarctic Intermediate Water AAIW and high potential density water HPDW constitute the MUC 2 Climatologically the MUC exists in the form of dualcore In some months the dualcore structure changes to a singlecore structure 3 Choosing section at 8°N for calculating the transport of the MUC transport is reliable Potential density constraint provides a good method for calculating the transport of the MUC 4 The annual mean transport of the MUC is 834×106 m3/s and varies considerably with seasons stronger in late spring and weaker in winterFoundation item The Major Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No 40890152 the National Basic Research Program of China under contract No 2012CB417404 National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 41221063 and 41130859

Keywords: