Interannual variation of freshwater in the yellow and East China Seas: Roles of the Changjiang discharge and wind forcing

The interannual variation of the behavior of Changjiang freshwater has been investigated using the Princeton Ocean Model (POM). Five experiments are described in this study. Three basic experiments (Exps. B1, B2 and B3) were performed to examine the freshwater behavior in response to annual variations of the Changjiang discharge in normal, wet and dry years, respectively. Thereafter, the freshwater variation was investigated with the model forced by primary-interannual variations of river discharge with an 8-year period (Exp. I1) and a wind field with a 3.6-year period (Exp. I2). In Exp. B1, the average residence time of freshwater is roughly estimated to be 681.4 days in the Yellow Sea (YS) and 353.4 days in the combined area of the East China Sea (ECS) and the Chinese Coast (CC). This difference is attributed to the current pattern in each region and freshwater exchange among the regions. The interannual variation of freshwater volume in Exp. I1 has a large amplitude and long phase lag in the YS (38 km³ and 1.6-year against primary-interannual discharge variation), while there are relatively small amplitudes and short phase lags in the ECS (18 km³ and 0.7-year) and the CC (14 km³ and 0.5-year). It is concluded that the difference in the freshwater behavior results from the difference in the average residence time in each region.