Open AccessA parametric model for the Yellow Sea thermal variability
Author(s) -
Chu Peter C.,
Fralick Charles R.,
Haeger Steven D.,
Carron Michael J.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/97jc00444
Subject(s) - thermocline , bathythermograph , mixed layer , geology , stratification (seeds) , sea surface temperature , climatology , temperature gradient , parametric statistics , oceanography , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , geography , seed dormancy , statistics , botany , germination , mathematics , dormancy , biology
A thermal parametric model has been developed for analyzing observed regional sea temperature profiles based on a layered structure of temperature fields (mixed layer, thermocline, and deep layers). It contains three major components: (1) a first‐guess parametric model, (2) high‐resolution profiles interpolated from observed profiles, and (3) fitting of high‐resolution profiles to the parametric model. The output of this parametric model is a set of major characteristics of each profile: sea surface temperature, mixed‐layer depth, thermocline depth, thermocline temperature gradient, and deep layer stratification. Analyzing nearly 15,000 Yellow Sea historical (1950–1988) temperature profiles (conductivity‐temperature‐depth station, 4825; expendable bathythermograph, 3213; bathythermograph, 6965) from the Naval Oceanographic Office's Master Oceanographic Observation Data Set by this parametric model, the Yellow Sea thermal field reveals dual structure: one layer (vertically uniform) during winter and multilayer (mixed layer, thermocline, sublayer) during summer. Strong seasonal variations were also found in mixed‐layer depth, thermocline depth, and thermocline strength.