Air-sea interactions over South China Sea and Western Pacific

By examining the output from a 200-year integration of a GFDL coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model (GCM), it is demonstrated that air-sea interaction plays a crucial role in generating the climatological monsoon circulation over the South China Sea (SCS) and subtropical western North Pacific (WNP).

Further analysis of the coupled GCM simulation, as well as experimentation with an atmospheric GCM forced by sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies at different sites, illustrate that El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events can influence the SCS-WNP monsoon through remote oceanic forcings originating from the Indian Ocean and equatorial Pacific, as well as local oceanic influences within the SCS-WNP domain.