Scaling Analysis of the Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly in the South China Sea

Abstract

Based on the data of optimum interpolation sea surface temperature (OISST), the temporal correlations of the sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) in the South China Sea (SCS) are studied by using the rescaled range analysis (R/S) and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). The results show that the scaling exponents of SSTAs are larger than 0.8. This finding indicates that the SSTAs in the SCS exhibit persistent long-range time correlation of the fluctuations and the interval spreads over a wide period, from about 1 month to 4.5 yr (4?235 weeks). In addition, the ?degree? of the correlations depends very much on the geographic locations: near to the coastal regions, the value is small, while far from the coastline, the value is relatively larger. This means that SSTAs in the central SCS are smoother than those of the coastal regions. The persistence of SST in the SCS may be used as a ?minimum skill? to assess the ocean models and to evaluate their performance.