| The South China Sea Warm Current is a northeastward current in the coastal area of eastern Guangdong and in the deep water off Guangdong. Thirty years and more have elapsed since the preliminary discovery of its existence in the nationwide comprehensive oceanographic survey (1959-1960). Through the efforts of Chinese oceanographers (including the scientists in Taiwan Island, and USA), significant progress has been achieved. The study of the South China Sea Warm Current is briefly reviewed in this paper in the following three parts:
(1) The discovery of the South China Sea Warm Current; (2) The observations and experiments for further confirming the Current; (3) The study of the mechanism of the current.
The third one is the main point of the present paper. Analysis revealed that as to the formation mechanism of the South China Sea Warm Current there exist several quite different viewpoints. It may be summed up into at least the following four major differences. After all, (1) which is the main cause of the current, the barotropic effect or baroclinic effect? (2) which is the main forcing term of the current, the down-stream sea surface slope or cross-shelf sea surface slope ? (3) whether the current is a climatic phenomenon or a synoptic one ? and (4) what is the relation between the South China Sea Warm Current and the Kuroshio South China Sea Branch ?
It is not easy to resolve these discrepancies. The author is looking forward to see that through the further common efforts of the scientists concerned, a reasonable and generally accepted conclusion of the formation mechanism of the South China Sea Warm Current may be gradually achieved in the not far future. |
