Analysis of water masses in the South China Sea in the summer of 1998
Liu Zeng · Donghai Marine Science · 2001
Based on the CTD data obtained during SCSMEX in the summer of 1998, the structure of sea water and the configuration of water masses of the South China Sea during summer are analyzed with methods of water masses analyses referred to as hierarchical clustering, Fuzzy model clustering, Bayes discriminant analysis and Fuzzy analysis. Nine water masses are discriminated out, and their characteristics in temperature and salinity are primarily analyzed respectively. During this period, the local water of the South China Sea water nearly dominated over the whole investigated area, while the Kuroshio water only appeared in the region southwest of Taiwan Island. The intense mixing of the sea water occurred near the Luzon Strait. In the region east off Vietnam and the region west off Luzon Island, the Surface Water submerged obviously. In the southeast of the South China Sea, there maybe existed the water from the Sulu Sea, and its temperature and salinity characteristics were similar to that of the Kuroshio water near the Luzon Strait.