Current simulation in the Malacca Strait and part of South China Sea due to wind

Abstract

The Malacca Strait (MS) and part of South China Sea (SCS) are simulated with a two-dimensional numerical model. The model covers in the domain 0.5° N – 5.5° N and 95.5° E – 105° E. The model solved the Navier-Stokes equations with the discretization Δx = Δy = 5 minutes and time step Δt = 50 seconds and we use Arakawa C-grid. The simulations are done for February 2010 and August 2010 based on the wind data derived from the National Centers of Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and open boundaries for sea level elevation obtained from Simple Oceanic Data Assimilation (SODA) v2.2.4. In February, strongly NE winds occur at SCS, whereas in MS weakly north wind from the north. In August, at SCS south wind occurs and in MS, SW wind direction is dominant in the northern part MS. The use of constants r = 0.038 generates the sea current velocity with the small results and far from the real situation. By using the constant r = 0.0025, the currents are greater about 50% compared to that of r = 0.038.