4.7 Article

Basin-wide responses of the South China Sea environment to Super Ty-phoon Mangkhut (2018)

Journal

SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Volume 731, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139093

Keywords

Chlorophyll-a bloom; Sea surface cooling; Multi-satellite remote sensing; Super typhoon Mangkhut; South China Sea

Funding

  1. National Key Research and Development Program of Ministry of Science and Technology of China [2018YFC1506405]
  2. National Program on Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction [GASI-IPOVAI-04]
  3. National Foundation of Natural Science of China [41876013, 41675009]
  4. Foundation of Natural Science of Guangdong [2019BT02H594]
  5. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Ocean Remote Sensing [2017B030301005-LORS2001]
  6. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology [SKLLQG1842]

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Relative to the open Northwest Pacific, the basin-scale South China Sea (SCS) is smaller and semi-enclosed, and the impacts of frequent super typhoons on the entire SCS basin have yet to be fully understood. Using multi-satellite observations and reanalysis data, this study explored biophysical responses of the upper ocean of the SCS induced by a typical super typhoon, Mangkhut (2018), and their regional differences with potential mechanisms. There were three different significant-response regions in the whole SCS, as follows: (1) In the ocean area around the typhoon path, strong vertical mixing, upwelling and cooling were induced, resulting in the surface chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentration enhancing markedly (three-fold). Particularly, asymmetric distribution of typhoon rainfall induced asymmetric sea surface salinity change over along the path the nearshore. Diurnal peak of chl-a concentration increased obviously, and the daily growth rate of chl-a sped up considerably in non-shore areas after Mangkhut's passage. (2) In the Beibu Gulf (BBG), the peripheral winds of Mangkhut caused a change in direction of the sea surface flow field, transporting the high-temperature and high-salinity surface seawater from the southeastern area to the BBG. This induced dramatic increases in sea surface temperature, salinity and height, and a decrease in chl-a, in most areas of BBG. (3) In the southwest SCS, the southwest monsoon-induced eastward offshore upwelling jet was weakened by the opposite large-scale peripheral wind vector of Mangkhut and gradually disappeared, resulting in accumulation and enhancement of chl-a in the nearshore. In addition, Mangkhut peripheral winds also intensified (weakened), shifting the cold (warm) eddy to the north (south) and blocking the horizontal eastward transport belt of the high-concentration chl-a. In general, our present work sheds light on the new evidence that a supper typhoon can cause basin-wide anomalies in the SCS, which has broad implications for marine biophysical environment. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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