The Effect of the ENSO on the Variability of SST and Chlorophyll-a in the South China Sea

Abstract

The South China Sea (SCS) is one of the western marginal oceans of the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by South China, the Indo Peninsula of China, Peninsular Malaysia, the Philippines, and Borneo Island. The effect of the ENSO on the Variability of SST and chlorophyll-a has been investigated by many researchers. However, in the study, there were not still a small number of researchers who studied in this SCS area using high-resolution satellite imagery data. Chlorophyll-a and SST data taken from MODIS data, and wind analysis data from CCMP (Cross Calibrate Multi-Platform). The results obtained, wind speed affects over changes SST and Chlorophyll-a at SCS. The influence of wind speed against the variability of SST is very strong, but otherwise, over variability of Chlorophyll-a is less impact. There is a high correlation between ENSO (El Nino) with the SST which tends to be dominant throughout the west season due to the influence of wind speed in the South China Sea from the Pacific towards Australia throughout the west season. However, this is in contrast to the correlation between ENSO and Chlorophyll-a which appears less dominant, which is suspected of other factors that may affect Chlorophyll-a anomalies in addition to wind and SST factors.