Based on the Sverdrup relation, using climatological wind stress data, the basin scale Sverdrup transport in the South China Sea(SCS) is calculated and the basic seasonal features of the Sverdrup circulation are obtained. A comparison of these calculated features with observations proves that the wind-driven circulation in the SCS is very important for the formation of the SCS upper oceanic circulation in winter, summer and fall. It is shown that the non-uniform sea surface wind is one of the causes to form multi circulation centers in the basin of the SCS. The westward current at 18

Using satellite data, we detected a wind wake trailing westward behind the Hawaiian Islands for 3000 kilometers, a length many times greater than observed anywhere else on Earth. This wind wake drives an eastward ocean current that draws warm water from the Asian coast 8000 kilometers away, leaving marked changes in surface and subsurface ocean temperature. Standing in the path of the steady trade winds, Hawaii triggers an air-sea interaction that provides the feedback to sustain the in

Seasonal and intraseasonal variability of thermocline and relative surface height in the central South China Sea (SCS) are investigated using time series data of temperature from three buoys and sea surface height anomalydata from TOPEX/POSEIDON and ERS-1/ERS-2 satellites(T/P-ERS) from Feb. 1998 through Mar. 1999. We found that the thermocline becomesde eper and thinner in winter, owing to a great loss of the heat on the sea surface. This feature is more evident in the northern than the southern part of the central SCS. The intraseasonal variation of the thermocline ismain ly controlled by the geostrophic vorticity and is out-of-phase with sea surface height (SSH). Furthermore, we find a double-thermocline phenomenon occurs in the SCS: In spring, owing to maximum net downward heat flux at the surface, with the new the rmocline appearing above 80m and the old thermocline keeping under 80m deep.