Sea Surface Height Study in the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea using Satellite Altimetry Data
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Abstract
Sea Surface Height or Sea level amplitude, phase and trend in the Gulf of Thailand (GoT) and South China Sea (SCS) have been derived from 1993-2010 multi-satellite altimeter data. First, amplitude plot shows high amplitude in the GoT and a lower one in SCS. Second, the phase plot gives the degrees starting with 1 January. As number of degrees is almost the same as number of days for a year (360/365), this basically says where the amplitude as given in the amplitude plot will have its maximum, so for the entire the GoT which can be said this is around middle of January (the high peak), so half a year later low peak will be seen. Last, sea level trend plot shows average sea level rise rate is 3.4 + 0.7 millimeter per year in the GoT and higher rate is also found in SCS which is higher than global average sea level rise rate (3.2 millimeter per year). Sea Level Anomaly shows two modes: (1) Low water level remains along the axis with heights on both sides (coasts of Asian continent, Borneo and GOT) when northeast monsoon prevails (November to January) (2) High water level remains along the axis with lows on both sides when southwest monsoon prevails (May to August). We also found that during 1997-1998 ENSO (El Nino-Southern Oscillation) event, sea surface height in the GoT and SCS is much lower than normal situation.
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