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Abstract

Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis was used to study a time-series of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) imageries from the waters of Taiwan Strait to examine the temporal and spatial characteristics and to determine the dominant pattern of sea surface temperature (SST) variability for 72 months from January 1996 to December 2001. The spatial variance was consistent with a quasi-permanent front at the Chang-Yuen Ridge in winter and associated with strong temperature contrast to the Kuroshio branch or the South China Sea Warm Current. It also displayed a cool water plume extending from the Peng-Hu Islands to Formosa Banks in summer. The EOF patterns and the eigenvalues in time and space were similar to each other. The dominant EOF mode, which resembled the mean of all images, showed a crescentic-shaped front near the Chang-Yuen Ridge where a cool tongue extending from China Coastal Waters was distinguishable from the warm current. The second mode revealed that the South China Sea Warm Current and the Taiwan Warm Current were over the Peng-Hu Channel following the 60- to 100-m isobaths. These two spatial modes accounted for 69.51% and 8.78% of the SST variance, respectively. From these images, we also discussed the characteristics of the SST variance in relation to the environments in winter.

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