Upper ocean near-inertial response to the passage of two sequential typhoons in the northwestern South China Sea

Abstract

Fifty-seven days of moored current records are examined, focusing on the sequential passage of Typhoons Nesat and Nalgae separated by 5 days in the northwestern South China Sea. Both typhoons generated strong near-inertial waves (NIW) as detected by a moored array, with the near-inertial velocity to the right of the typhoon path significantly larger than to the left. The estimated vertical phase and group velocities of the NIW induced by Typhoon Nesat are 0.2 cm s−1 and 0.85 m h−1, respectively, corresponding to a vertical wavelength of 350 m. Both the vertical phase and group velocities of the NIW induced by Typhoon Nalgae are lower than those of Typhoon Nesat, with the corresponding vertical wavelength only one-half that of Nesat. The threshold values of induced near-inertial kinetic energy (NIKE) of 5 J m−3 reach water depths of 300 and 200 m for Typhoons Nesat and Nalgae, respectively, illustrating that the NIKE induced by Typhoon Nesat dissipated less with depth. Obvious blueshifts in the induced NIW frequencies are also detected. The frequency of NIW induced by Typhoon Nesat significantly increases at water depths of 100–150 m because of Doppler shifting, but decreases significantly at water depths of 100–150 m for Nalgae because of the greater influence of the background vorticity during the passage of Typhoon Nalgae.