Sea surface salinity and the ocean structure in the tropical Indian Ocean

Abstract

This Ph.D. thesis was developed with tremendous supports and helps from numerous people, without whom the thesis could have not been completed. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of them for making this thesis possible. First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Prof. Zhongbo Su, who offered me the opportunity as a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente. It is my great honor to be one of his students and do research under his supervision. His valuable guidance and enthusiastic encouragement helped me overcome all the difficulties and challenges in my research. His positive and creative thinking guided me through both scientific research and daily life in the Netherlands. I am also very grateful for his immense support to fund my many trips to conferences and a three-month exchange at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), where I was able to broaden my views and thoughts and kept up with the developments in my research field. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for financially supporting my Ph.D. study at the University of Twente. Without the support of CSC, my Ph.D. journey may not even be possible. There are many other colleagues and friends from ITC and University of Twente, who, directly or indirectly, helped and supported me during the last six years. To them, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation. Special thanks to the secretaries, J. de Koning (Anke), E.L. Butt-Castro (Tina), L.M. Snijders-Nijkrake (Lindy) and Loes Colenbrander and the Chinese staff, Yijian Zeng, Lichun Wang, and Xuelong Chen for their friendly help and concerns. To my colleagues and friends