.[1] Climatological seasonal variations of the thermocline in the China Seas and northwestern Pacific Ocean were studied using historical data from 1930 through 2001 (707,624 profiles). The quantitative roles of surface thermal buoyancy (B q ), haline buoyancy flux (B p ), and total buoyancy flux (B) against the wind-induced mixing (t) in different seasons and regions were also explored using the buoyancy ratio (R = |B q /B p |) and the Monin-Obukhov depth ratio (d), respectively. The thermocline has obvious seasonal variations in the study area north of 20°N. There is no thermocline along the west coast of the Bohai Sea (BS), Yellow Sea (YS), and northern East China Sea from December to March resulting from surface cooling and wind mixing. The significantly different variation of the thermocline strength on and off the Chinese shelf is mainly caused by the fact that the thermal stratification is enhanced by bottom tidal mixing on the shelf. The d indicates that the thermocline depth on the Chinese shelf is mainly dominated by B in summer, while it is dominated by t in winter. It reveals an opposite feature in the Kuroshio region; the dominating factor is B in winter, associated with the large heat buoyancy loss there. South of 20°N, the dominating factor is similar to that on the shelf, with the more obvious B dominant characteristic during the monsoon transition periods. The R demonstrates that B is mainly controlled by B q all year round, with some sporadically B p -dominated regions in the tropical area in winter and in the BS and eastern YS in September.

[1] Temperature inversion was reported as a common phenomenon in the areas near the southeastern Chinese coast (region A), west and south of the Korean Peninsula (region B), and north and east of the Shandong Peninsula (region C) during October-May in the present study, based on hydrographic data archived from 1930 through 2001 (319,029 profiles). The inversion was found to be remarkable with obvious temporal and spatial variabilities in both magnitude and coverage, with higher probabilities in region A (up to about 60%) and region C (40%-50%) than in region B (15%-20%). The analysis shows that seasonal variation of the net air-sea heat flux is closely related to the occurrence time of the inversion in the three areas, while the Yangtze and Yellow river freshwater plumes in the surface layer and ocean origin saline water in the subsurface layer maintain stable stratification. It seems that the evaporation/excessive precipitation flux makes little contribution to maintaining the stable inversion. Advection of surface fresh water by the wind-driven coastal currents results in the expansion of inversion in regions A and C. The inversion lasts for the longest period in region A (October-May) sustained by the Taiwan Warm Current carrying the subsurface saline water, while evolution of the inversion in region B is mainly controlled by the Yellow Sea Warm Current.

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