HR: 0830h
AN: OS11A-10    [Abstracts]
TI: Monthly Variation of Taiwan Strait Through-flow Transports and Associated Water Masses
AU: * Jan, S
EM: senjan@cc.ncu.edu.tw
AF: Institute of Hydrological Sciences, National Central University, 300 Jung-da Rd., Jung-li, 32001 Taiwan
AU: Sheu, D
EM: ddsheu@mail.nsysu.edu.tw
AF: Institute of Marine Geology and Chemistry, National Sun Yat-Sen University, 70 Lien-hai Rd., Kaohsiung, 80424 Taiwan
AU: Kuo, H
EM: vickihun@mail.ncor.ntu.edu.tw
AF: National Center for Ocean Research, P.O. Box 23-13, Taipei, 10617 Taiwan
AB: Through-flow transports and associated water masses are analyzed using current data measured by bottom-mounted and ship-board ADCP (1999-2001) across the central Taiwan Strait and strait-wide hydrographic data acquired from 79 CTD survey cruises (1986-2003). The East Asian monsoon, from southwest in July to August and northeast in October to March, controls the transport fluctuation which peaks in August (2.34 Sv northward), is hampered by the northeast monsoon after September and diminishes to the minimum (0.26 Sv southward) in December. The standard deviation of the calculated transport ranges from 0.56 to 1.05 Sv during northeast monsoon months and is relatively small in other months. A cluster analysis together with conventional T-S diagrams identifies the saline and warm Kuroshio Branch Water (KBW), the less saline South China Sea Surface Water (SCSSW), the brackish and cold China Coastal Water (CCW), the saline Subsurface Water (SW) (depth > 100 m) and the Diluted Coastal Water (DCW). The majority of the northward transport in summer carries the SCSSW to the East China Sea. Meanwhile, the DCW appears off the northwest bank of the strait and the SW resides in the bottom layer of a deep trench in the southeastern strait. The onset of the northeast monsoon in September drives the CCW from the Yangtze river mouth to the northern strait. In the southern strait, the northward-moving KBW replaces the SCSSW and meets the southward-intruding CCW in the middle strait during November to April.
DE: 4247 Marine meteorology
DE: 4512 Currents
DE: 4536 Hydrography
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly