Observed three-dimensional structure of a cold eddy in the southwestern South China Sea

Abstract

The dynamic structure of an ocean eddy in the eddy-abundant South China Sea has rarely been captured by measurements and has seldom been discussed in the literature. In the present study, in situ current and hydrographic measurements from a weeklong cruise and concurrent satellite altimeter observations were utilized to examine the three-dimensional structure and physical properties of a cold eddy in the southwestern South China Sea. The underlying forcing mechanism for the formation of this cyclonic cold eddy was found to be tightly associated with the recirculation in a coastal baroclinic jet that had separated off the Vietnamese coast. The eddy was significantly influenced by a coexisting, anticyclonic warm eddy in the separated jet. With relatively steady intensity and radius, the cold eddy endured for two weeks after its swift formation in late August and prior to its quick dissipation in mid-September. This cold eddy was horizontally and vertically heterogeneous. Asymmetric currents with much stronger magnitude were found on its southeastern flank, next to the warm eddy, where a front in the pycnocline was responsible for the sharp decrease in the cold eddy's intensity in the water below. The distributions of temperature, vorticity, and vertical velocity in the cold eddy were spatially asymmetric and not overlapping. The intensity of the cold eddy gradually decreased with the depth and the eddy extended downward for more than 250 m with a vertically tilted central axis. The upward velocities around the center of the eddy and the downward velocities to the southwest and to the east of the center jointly formed the upward domes of isotherms and isohalines in the central part of the cold eddy. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.