Different effects of tropical cyclones generated in the South China Sea and the northwest Pacific on the summer South China Sea circulation

Abstract

Tropical cyclones (TCs) that affect the South China Sea (SCS) can be generated in either the SCS or the northwestern Pacific (NWP). Using satellite measurements, the Sverdrup theory and a 1.5-layer nonlinear reduced gravity model, the present paper investigates the effects of SCS and NWP TCs on the summer SCS upper layer ocean circulation. Both SCS and NWP TCs enhance the summer mean circulation pattern of the cyclonic gyre in the northern SCS and the anti-cyclonic gyre in the southern SCS. However, the effect of SCS TCs is much larger than that of NWP TCs, although the number of SCS TCs is smaller than NWP TCs. This is because the SCS TCs-induced wind stress curl pattern is favorable for enhancing the summer SCS mean circulation.