Vertical circulation and heat flux of coastal ocean fronts in the northwestern South China Sea

This study investigates the 3D structure and vertical circulation of the coastal ocean fronts in the northwestern South China Sea (NWSCS) by applying the generalized Omega equation to cruise observations in late August and early September 2018. The results reveal three summer density front zones (SUF1∼3) in the surface and subsurface layers. SUF1 is distributed along the coast with water depths shallower than 20 m and a density gradient larger than 0.2 × 10⁻³ kg m⁻⁴. It extends vertically from surface to bottom and is dominated by salinity gradient. In contrast, SUF2 and SUF3 are temperature-dominated frontal zones appearing in the offshore subsurface layer. SUF2 is in the cross-shelf direction between the 20-m and 40-m isobaths associated with upwelling waters originating from the south. The observed submesoscale fronts have a Rossby number of O(1). The diagnosed vertical velocities indicate that an upwelling peak of 4.2 × 10⁻⁵ m s⁻¹ is located near the coast in SUF1, while, in contrast, a maximum vertical velocity of −5.1 × 10⁻⁵ m s⁻¹ in the cross-shelf SUF2. Dynamic analysis results indicate that ageostrophic advection is the dominant term. The vertical heat fluxes derived from the vertical velocity and temperature anomaly are mainly positive both in SUF1 and SUF2, with a maximum value of 279.5 W m⁻² and 418.8 W m⁻², respectively, which are one order larger than the sea surface heat flux during the observation.