Advances in research of regional oceanography of South China Sea: Overview

Abstract

The research of regional oceanography in the South China Sea (SCS) has gained unprecedented advances and developments in broad research fields since 2010. Those achievements have mostly been gained through government-supported projects. The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) supported project “A study of water exchanges and interaction between the Taiwan Strait and the Luzon Strait” (U1405233) is one of the important projects. The project focused on the spatiotemporal variability and mechanism of water exchanges through the Taiwan Strait and the Luzon Strait. The project obtained the original and important results on the linkage and interaction of hydrodynamic processes, and the governing roles of the Kuroshio and the Pacific upon the two straits. To deliver the new research results to the oceanography community, editing and publishing a book would be the best way. This chapter briefly summarizes the most outstanding scientific results and achievements in the research fields of atmosphere-forced processes, internal waves and internal tides, submesoscale processes, mesoscale eddies, Pearl River Estuary plume, intrinsic modes of the SCS deep basin, and disturbances from the Pacific directly propagating into the SCS. The details would be reviewed in related chapters.