Modal recovery of sea-level variability in the South China Sea using merged altimeter data -- Journal of Oceanology and Limnology,2015,33(5):1233-1244

	Cite this paper:
	JIANG Haoyu, CHEN Ge. Modal recovery of sea-level variability in the South China Sea using merged altimeter data[J]. Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 2015, 33(5): 1233-1244

Modal recovery of sea-level variability in the South China Sea using merged altimeter data

JIANG Haoyu, CHEN Ge

Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, College of Information Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China

Abstract:

Using 20 years (1993-2012) of merged data recorded by contemporary multi-altimeter missions, a variety of sea-level variability modes are recovered in the South China Sea employing threedimensional harmonic extraction.In terms of the long-term variation, the South China Sea is estimated to have a rising sea-level linear trend of 5.39 mm/a over these 20 years.Among the modes extracted, the seven most statistically significant periodic or quasi-periodic modes are identified as principal modes.The geographical distributions of the magnitudes and phases of the modes are displayed.In terms of intraannual and annual regimes, two principal modes with strict semiannual and annual periods are found, with the annual variability having the largest amplitudes among the seven modes.For interannual and decadal regimes, five principal modes at approximately 18, 21, 23, 28, and 112 months are found with the most modeactive region being to the east of Vietnam.For the phase distributions, a series of amphidromes are observed as twins, termed "amphidrome twins", comprising rotating dipole systems.The stability of periodic modes is investigated employing joint spatiotemporal analysis of latitude/longitude sections.Results show that all periodic modes are robust, revealing the richness and complexity of sea-level modes in the South China Sea.

Key words: sea-level variability|South China Sea (SCS)|harmonic extraction method|amphidrome twins|merged altimeter data

Received: 2014-04-25 Revised: 2014-06-05

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Articles by JIANG Haoyu

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