Based on the results of several experiments with altered bathymetry, it is found that the topographic feature, Beikang Shoals, seems to steer the strong shelf currents northward away from the shelf. This offshore current thus induces anticyclonic eddy over the Nansha Trough, which then propagates northwestward under the β-effect.
Fig. 6 shows two SSH distributions in The SCS from an experiment with a constant Hellerman-Rosenstein August winds. The fluctuating cyclonic gyre and the warm eddies north of it, both caused by the Kuroshio, now have smaller extent than the winter pattern. In the rest of the SCS there are two anticyclonic gyres with a cyclonic gyre sandwiched in between just off the northeast coast of middle Vietnam. These three gyres are again consistent with the field of the mean summer wind-stress curl (Yang Haijun, private communication).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We wish to thank the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology under the South China Sea Monsoon Experiment Program (for SJL and XJP), and of the National Natural Science Foundation under Grant No.49456001 (for SJL, XJP and WO) and Grant No.49636230 (for CSQ).
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