The spatiotemporal variation of the wind-induced near-inertial energy flux in the mixed layer of the South China Sea

Abstract

On the basis of the QSCAT/NCEP blended wind data and simple ocean data assimilation (SODA), the wind-induced near-inertial energy flux (NIEF) in the mixed layer of the South China Sea (SCS) is estimated by a slab model, and the model results are verified by observational data near the Xisha Islands in the SCS. Then, the spatial and temporal variations of the NIEF in the SCS are analyzed. It is found that, the monthly mean NIEF exhibits obvious spatial and temporal variabilities, i.e., it is large west of Luzon Island all the year, east of the Indo-China Peninsula all the year except in spring, and in the northern SCS from May to September. The large monthly mean NIEF in the first two zones may be affected by the large local wind stress curl whilst that in the last zone is probably due to the shallow mixed layer depth. Moreover, the monthly mean NIEF is relatively large in summer and autumn due to the passage of typhoons. The spatial mean NIEF in the mixed layer of the SCS is estimated to be about 1.25 mW/m2 and the total wind energy input from wind is approximately 4.4 GW. Furthermore, the interannual variability of the spatial monthly mean NIEF and the Nino 3.4 index are negatively correlated.