P65 Numerical Simulation of the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer over the Spring Oceanic Front in the Northwestern South China Sea

Shi, Rui, J. Chen, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology (SCSIO), China, X. Guo, Ehime University, Japan, L. Zeng, J. Li, Q. Xie, X. Wang, and D. Wang, SCSIO, China

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to further examine the thermodynamical mechanisms of the MABL's

response to the oceanic front at the South China Sea. The WRF model successfully simulates the change in the MABL structure across the front, which agrees well with the observations. The spatially high-pass-filtered fields of sea surface temperature (SST) and 10m neutral equivalent wind from the WRF model simulation show a tight, positive coupling between the SST and surface winds near the front. Analysis of the momentum budget shows that the most active and significant term affecting horizontal momentum over the frontal zone is the adjustment of the pressure gradient. It is found that the front in the NSCS is wide enough for slowly moving air parcels to be affected by the change in underlying SST.