Book Description

The South China Sea (SCS), Yellow/East China Sea (YES), and Japan/East Sea (JES) are major East Asian marginal seas (EAMS). The complex topography includes the broad shallows of the Sunda Shelf in the south/southwest of SCS; the continental shelf of the Asian landmass in the north, extending from the Gulf of Tonkin to the YES; deep, elliptical shaped SCS and JES basins, and numerous reef islands and underwater plateaus scattered throughout the basins. The shelf that extends from the Gulf of Tonkin to the YES is consistently near 70 meters deep, and averages 150 km in width. The EAMS is subjected to a seasonal monsoon system. From April to August, the weaker southwesterly summer monsoon winds result in a wind stress of just over 0.1 N/sq m. From November to March, the stronger northeasterly winter monsoon winds correspond to a maximum wind stress of nearly 0.3 N/sq m. Recent observational studies show that the EAMS is energetic and has multi-eddy structure. For example, the eddy spatial and temporal scales in the YES were identified using the Navy's Master Oceanographic Observational Data Set (MOODS) during 1929-1991. The fundamental scientific issues are as follows: What are the dynamical balances controlling mesoscale eddy variations in EAMS? What are the effects of surface wind and thermohaline forcing, coastline geometry and topographic slope on the coastal dynamics including wave processes and current instabilities? What is the role of coastal air-ocean coupling on the oceanic and atmospheric dynamics of mesoscale eddies? To study these problems, a coastal atmosphere-ocean coupled system (CAOCS) was developed at the Naval Postgraduate School. The model domain covers the whole EAMS and surrounding land and islands. The surface fluxes of water, heat (excluding solar radiation), and momentum are applied synchronously with opposite signs in the atmosphere and ocean. Flux adjustments are not used.