Siliceous microplankton fluxes and seasonal variations in the central South China Sea during 1993–1995: monsoon climate and El Niño responses

Seasonal variations of radiolarian and diatom fluxes in the central South China Sea during 1993–1995 were overwhelmingly controlled by monsoon climate. Radiolarian and diatom increased obviously during the Northeast (from November to February) and Southwest (from June to September) monsoons and decreased during the periods between the monsoons. The change of circulation driven by the monsoons improved water exchange in the different areas that brought rich nutrient materials for the surface microplankton, thereby enhancing radiolarian and diatom fluxes. Variation of radiolarian flux coincided with organic carbon flux, surface primary and export productivities. High radiolarian flux corresponded to high surface primary productivity. Radiolarian and diatom fluxes raised abnormally during 1994–1995 could be attributed to the El Nino event during the period.     

Premonitory phenomenon of El Ni(n)o event reflected in the observations of LOD and sea level

Data sets of the changes of the length of day, the sea surface temperature in the eastern Pacific and of the sea level in Hong Long from tide gauge observations are used to analyze and reveal the reflections in the observations of the length of day and the sea level changes concerned with the premonitory phenomenon of next El Ni(n)o event. The results from this study indicate that a new El Ni(n)o event has been brewing with the ending of the strong La Nina event that started in early summer of 1998. The estimated formation period of the new El Ni(n)o event will begin before the end of 2000, and the peak period may be reached at around the end of 2001.     

Connection between interannual variability of the western Pacific and eastern Indian Oceans in the 1997 - 1998 El Nino event

In this paper, the sea surface height and the heat content of the upper ocean are analyzed to retrieve the relationship of interannual variabilities between the tropical western Pacific and eastern Indian Oceans during the 1997 - 1998 El Nino event. In the prophase of this El Nino, the negative sea level anomalies (SLA) occurred in the tropical western Pacific (TWP) firstly, and then appeared in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean (TEI). The negative heat content anomalies (HCA) emerged in the TWP before this El Nino burst while the SLA signals developed over there. During the mature stage of this El Nino, two kinds of signals in the TWP and TEI turned to be the maximum negative sequently. Due to the connected interannual adjustment between the TEI and TWP, we adopted a method to estimate the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) transport by calculating the HCA budget in the TEI. The indirect estimation of the ITF was comparable to the observation values. Therefore, the anomalies in the TEI had been proved as adv