The South China Sea Throughflow Retrieved from Climatological Data

Abstract

The salinity distribution in the South China Sea (SCS) has a pronounced subsurface maximum from 150?220 m throughout the year. This feature can only be maintained by the existence of a mean flow through the SCS, consisting of a net inflow of salty North Pacific tropical water through the Luzon Strait and outflow through the Mindoro, Karimata, and Taiwan Straits. Using an inverse modeling approach, the authors show that the magnitude and space?time variations of the SCS thermohaline structure, particularly for the salinity maximum, allow a quantitative estimate of the SCS throughflow and its distribution among the three outflow straits. Results from the inversion are compared with available observations and output from a 50-yr simulation of a highly resolved ocean general circulation model. The annual-mean Luzon Strait transport is found to be 2.4 ± 0.6 Sv (Sv ≡ 106 m3 s?1). This inflow is balanced by the outflows from the Karimata (0.3 ± 0.5 Sv), Mindoro (1.5 ± 0.4), and Taiwan (0.6 ± 0.5 Sv) Straits. Results of the inversion suggest that the Karimata transport tends to be overestimated in numerical models. The Mindoro Strait provides the only passage from the SCS deeper than 100 m, and half of the SCS throughflow (1.2 ± 0.3 Sv) exits the basin below 100 m in the Mindoro Strait, a result that is consistent with a climatological run of a 0.1° global ocean general circulation model.