Satellite Observation on the Exceptional Intrusion of Cold Water in the Taiwan Strait

We used sat el lite-de rived sea sur face tem per a ture (SST) data for the win ters of 1996 -2008 to ex am ine the ex cep tional in tru sion of China Coastal Cur rent into the Tai wan Strait. The long term ob ser va tion re veals that, in 1999 and 2000, the strong wind (> 6 m s -1 ) lasted for 12 and 16 days with a drop of 5.35 and 5.5C in SST, re spec tively. The sat el lite data also showed that the China Coastal Cur rent in truded from the north of the Chang-Yuen Ridge into the wa ters sur round ing the Peng-Hu Is lands, with wind speeds of more than 6.7 m s -1 lasted for 30 days dur ing the same pe riod. The ex cep tional in tru sion re sulted in the min i mum SST of 12.6C on 16 Feb ru ary 2008, 7.8C lower than the 12-year av er age of Feb ru ary (20.4C). The higher SST (> 18C) ap peared af ter 21 Feb ru ary 2008 in di cat ing the north ward with drawal of the cold wa ter. Dur ing the pe riod of 15 -21 Feb ru ary 2008, the China Coastal Cur rent in truded to as far south as the water around Peng-Hu Islands.