A Numerical Study on the Wintertime Upwind flow of the Yellow Sea in an Idealized Basin

Abstract

The wintertime upwind flow in the Yellow Sea has been investigated through a series of two-dimensional numerical experiments in an idealized basin. A total of 10 experiments have been carried out to examine the effects of wind forcing, bottom friction and the presence of oceanic currents sweeping the shelf of the East China Sea. A spatially uniform steady and periodic wind stresses are considered along with comparison of linear and quadratic formulations. The wind-driven flow in the absence of oceanic current has been computed using Proudman open boundary condition (POBC), while the wind-driven current in the presence of oceanic current has been computed using Flather’s radiation condition (FOBC). The oceanic currents to be prescribed at the open boundary have been simulated by specifying uniform sea level gradients across the Taiwan Strait and the eastern ECS shelf, Calculations show that, as seen in Lee et al. (2000), oceanic flow little penetrates into the Yellow Sea in the absence of wind forcing unless a unrealistically low rate of bottom frictional dissipation is assumed. Both steady and time-periodic wind stresses invoke the upwind flow along the central trough of the Yellow Sea, independently of the presence of the oceanic current. The presence of oceanic currents very marginally alters the north-south gradient of the sea surface elevation in the Yellow Sea. Changes in the intensity and direction of the wind-induced mean upwind flow are hardly noticeable in the Yellow Sea but are found to be significant near Cheju Island where the gradient is reduced and therewith contribution of Ekman transport increases. In case of steady wind forcing circulation patterns such as two gyres on the slope sides, a cyclonic gyre on the western slope and an anticyclonic gyre on the eastern slope persist and the upwind flow composes part of the cyclonic gyre in the Yellow Sea. While in case of the time-periodic wind stress the appearance and disappearance of the patterns are repeated according to the time variation of the wind stress and the upwind flow accordingly varies with phase delay, mostly intensifying near the time when the wind forcing is approximately near the middle of the decaying stage.