title: Observed 3D Structure, Generation, and Dissipation of Oceanic Mesoscale Eddies in the South China Sea.
abstract: Oceanic mesoscale eddies with horizontal scales of 50-300 km are the most energetic form of flows in the ocean. They are the oceanic analogues of atmospheric storms and are effective transporters of heat, nutrients, dissolved carbon, and other biochemical materials in the ocean. Although oceanic eddies have been ubiquitously observed in the world oceans since 1960s, our understanding of their three-dimensional (3D) structure, generation, and dissipation remains fragmentary due to lack of systematic full water-depth measurements. To bridge this knowledge gap, we designed and conducted a multi-months field campaign, called the South China Sea Mesoscale Eddy Experiment (S-MEE), in the northern South China Sea in 2013/2014. The S-MEE for the first time captured full-depth 3D structures of an anticyclonic and cyclonic eddy pair, which are characterized by a distinct vertical tilt of their axes. By observing the eddy evolution at an upstream versus downstream location and conducting an eddy energy budget analysis, the authors further proposed that generation of submesoscale motions most likely constitutes the dominant dissipation mechanism for the observed eddies.
authors.affiliation: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China, 238 Songling Road, Qingdao 266100, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhiwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China, 238 Songling Road, Qingdao 266100, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jiwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China, 238 Songling Road, Qingdao 266100, P.R. China.|Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1000 Pope Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China, 238 Songling Road, Qingdao 266100, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China, 238 Songling Road, Qingdao 266100, P.R. China.|Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China, 238 Songling Road, Qingdao 266100, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Dexing
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China, 238 Songling Road, Qingdao 266100, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiuquan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wan