Posts by john86

john86

Jun 21, 2011

Research Papers / The Sulu Sea in China [3]

Celebes Sea

The Celebes Sea is located in the western Pacific Ocean, north of the Indonesian Island of Celebes and south of the Sulu Sea and the Philippines (Figure 2.6). Similar to Sulu Sea, it is a deep-water sea (over 4000 meters) and surrounded by much shallower ocean such as Sulu Sea (to the north), the Makassar Strait (to the south), and the Phillipine and Molucca Seas (to the east). Like Sulu Sea, ocean current study at Celebes Sea is not comprehensive. According to Wyrtki (1961), a combination of oceanographic features of deep sea trenches and sea mounts combined with active volcanic islands produces strong ocean currents at Celebes Sea. The water depth in the northern region changes rapidly, from over 4000 m in Sulu Sea to approximately 100 m in the area across the Sulu Archipelago, returning to over 4000 m in the Celebes Sea (Figure 2.6)

john86

Jun 21, 2011

Research Papers / The Sulu Sea in China [3]

Sulu Sea is a body of water in the Southwestern area of the Philippines and contains most of the Philippine islands and Malaysian Sabah. This region is located in the western Pacific Ocean along the west side of the Philippines (approximately 50 and 110 N. latitude and 1170) (atlas) separated from the South China Sea and Celebes Sea by Palawan and Sulu Archipelago respectively.

The Sulu Sea is like the South China Sea, situated in a monsoon region. It can be categorized as a complex sea region which is surrounded by shallow water and complex seabed. The water depth in the southern region changes rapidly, from over 4000 m in Sulu Sea to approximately 100m in the area across the Sulu Archipelago and returning to over 4000m in the Celebes Sea (Figure 2.4)

Generally, ocean current study at Sulu Sea is not as comprehensive like South China Sea. It's maybe because the Sulu Sea is too small to attract oceanographer's attention (Chai et al 2009). Sulu Sea is mainly connected with the South China Sea through the Mindoro and the Balabac straits and with Celebes Sea through the Sibutu Passage. According to previous studies (e.g., Wyrtki ,1961 and Chai et al., 2005) ,the surface circulation in summer and winter is mainly anticyclonic and cyclonic respectively.

According to Cai et al (2009), the weak anticyclonic and strong cyclonic eddies which dominated in summer and winter respectively are because of the local monsoon stress curl. By using eight years of absolute dynamic topography from satellite altimetry to study seasonal variability of the circulation in the Sulu Sea, Cai et al (2009) found that the upper circulation in the Sulu Sea is closely related to outflow via the Sibutu Passage and seasonal local wind stress.

Chai and He (2010) have studied association of the Sulu Sea circulation with South China Sea using fifteen years of satellite altimetry data and reported that the seasonal Sulu Sea surface circulation is highly correlated with South China Sea. From the study, they found the highly positive correlation of seasonal circulation between the Sulu Sea and the southeastern South China is due to three reasons; (1) the oceanic responses to almost the same and synchronous seasonal variation in Sulu Sea and southeastern South China Sea (2) the water exchange of the South China Sea with the Sulu Sea via the Mindoro Strait and the Balabac Strait and (3) the seasonal steric change between the Sulu Sea and the southeastern South China Sea.