Analysis of the high and low temperature centers and their relation with circulations in the East China Sea

Three warm currents, the Kuroshio, its shelf intrusion branch in the northeast of Taiwan and the Taiwan Warm Current (hereafter TWC), dominate the circulation pattern in the East China Sea (hereafter ECS). Their origination, routes and variation in winter and summer are studied. Their relationship with four major high and low temperature centers is analyzed. Differing from the previous opinion, we suggest that the four major centers are generated to a great extent by the interaction of the currents in the ECS. In summer, a cold water belt in the northeast of Taiwan is preserved from winter between the Kuroshio and the TWC. The shelf intrusion branch of the Kuroshio separates the water belt, and two low temperature centers generate in the northeast of Taiwan. In the southern ECS, the TWC transports more heat flux northward to form a warm pool. But it is separated in the lower layer by the cold water driven by the intrusion branch of the Kuroshio. So the TWC and the intrusion branch of the Kuroshio play a dominating role to generate the high temperature center. The interaction among the eastward TWC, the northward Tsushima Warm Current (hereafter TSWC) and the southward Su Bei Coastal Flow (hereafter SBCF) generates the low temperature center in the northern ECS. In winter, the strengthening of the shelf intrusion branch of the Kuroshio obscures the two low temperature centers in the northeast of Taiwan. For the weakening of the TWC, the high temperature center in the southern ECS vanishes, and the low temperature center in the northern ECS shifts to south.