Revealing the Subsurface Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass from Satellite Data Associated with Typhoon Muifa

Abstract

AbstractA significant sea surface temperature (SST) drop was clearly identified to be confined exactly over the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass (YSCWM) from satellite‐derived SSTs during Typhoon Muifa's passage over the Yellow Sea (YS) in early August 2011. With a simple one‐dimensional mixed‐layer model (Price‐Weller‐Pinkel [PWP]), the mixed‐layer heat budget diagnosis concluded that the entrainment term, rather than the surface heat flux term that usually dominates over the open ocean, was the dominant process for the significant SST cooling over the YSCWM. The PWP‐based experiments were conducted to set up one lookup table including the SST drop, wind speed, and subsurface temperature gradient, from which the YSCWM's intensity (represented by the subsurface temperature gradient) can be easily found with the satellite wind and SST measurements during the typhoon passage over the YS. This YSCWM‐anchored significant SST drop provides a promising possibility to detect the YSCWM intensity and extent, which have generally been poorly sampled to date.