Surface water exchanges in the Luzon Strait as inferred from Lagrangian coherent structures

Zhehao Zheng; Wei Zhuang; Jianyu Hu; Zelun Wu; Changjian Liu

doi:10.1007/s13131-020-1677-y

Volume 39 Issue 11

Dec. 2020

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Zhehao Zheng, Wei Zhuang, Jianyu Hu, Zelun Wu, Changjian Liu. Surface water exchanges in the Luzon Strait as inferred from Lagrangian coherent structures[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2020, 39(11): 21-32. doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1677-y

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Zhehao Zheng, Wei Zhuang, Jianyu Hu, Zelun Wu, Changjian Liu. Surface water exchanges in the Luzon Strait as inferred from Lagrangian coherent structures[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2020, 39(11): 21-32. doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1677-y

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Surface water exchanges in the Luzon Strait as inferred from Lagrangian coherent structures

doi: 10.1007/s13131-020-1677-y

Zhehao Zheng¹,
Wei Zhuang^{1, 2
,
,},
Jianyu Hu^{1, 2},
Zelun Wu^{1, 3},
Changjian Liu⁴

1.
State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China
2.
Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai 519082, China
3.
Joint Center for Ocean Remote Sensing, University of Delaware-Xiamen University, Newark, DE 19716, USA
4.
South China Sea Marine Survey and Technology Center, Ministry of Natural Resources, Guangzhou 510300, China

Funds: The National Key Research and Development Program of China under contract No. 2016YFA0601201; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract Nos 91858202, 91958203, 41730533 and 41776003.

More Information

Corresponding author: E-mail: wzhuang@xmu.edu.cn
Received Date: 2020-05-01
Accepted Date: 2020-08-10

Available Online: 2020-12-28

Publish Date: 2020-11-25

Abstract

Abstract

This study presents a Lagrangian view of upper water exchanges across the Luzon Strait based on the finite-time Lyapunov exponents (FTLE) fields computed from the surface geostrophic current. The Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs) extracted from the FTLE fields well identify the typical flow patterns and eddy activities around the Luzon Strait. In addition, they reveal the intricate transport paths and fluid domains, which are validated by the tracks of satellite-tracked surface drifters and cannot be visually recognized in the velocity maps. The FTLE fields indicate that there are mainly four types of transport patterns near the Luzon Strait; among them, the Kuroshio northward-flowing “leaping” pattern and the clockwise rotating “looping” pattern occur more frequently than the “leaking” pattern of the direct Kuroshio branch into the SCS and the “outflowing” pattern from the SCS to the Pacific. The eddy shedding events of the Kuroshio at the Luzon Strait are further analyzed, and the importance of considering LCSs in estimating transport by eddies is highlighted. The anticyclonic eddy (ACE) shedding cases reveal that ACEs mainly originate from the looping paths of Kuroshio and thus could effectively trap the Kuroshio water before eddy detachments. LCSs provide useful information to predict the positions of the upstream waters that finally enter the ACEs. In contrast, LCS snapshots indicate that during the formation of cyclonic eddies (CEs), most CEs are not connected with the pathways of Kuroshio water. Hence, the contribution of CEs to the surface water exchanges from the Pacific into the SCS is tiny.
- Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs),
- Kuroshio,
- Luzon Strait,
- transport pathways,
- particle tracking

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References(56)

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