Research Center for Environmental Changes, ACADEMIA SINICA

Research Interests

Physical Oceanography, Climate Change, Data analysis and Numerical modelling

Representative Publications

Ren, H., W.-H. Chen, J. Chiang, Y.-L. Wang, R.-Y. Cai-Li, Y.-C. Chen, C.-C. Shen, F. Taylor, T. DeCarlo, C.-R. Wu, H.-S. Mii, and X. Wang (2023): Increased tropical South Pacific western boundary current transport over the past century. Nature Geoscience, Accepted.

Wang, Y.-L. and C.-R. Wu* (2022): Rapid surface warming of the Pacific Asian marginal seas since the late 1990s. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 127(12), e2022JC018744.

Wang, Y.-L. and C.-R. Wu* (2020): Nonstationary El Niño teleconnection on the post-summer upwelling off Vietnam. Scientific Reports.

Wang, Y.-L., and C.-R. Wu* (2019): Enhanced warming and intensification of the Kuroshio Extension, 1999-2013. Remote Sensing, 11(1), 101.

Wang, Y.-L., Y.-C. Hsu, C.-P. Lee*, and C.-R. Wu* (2019): Coupling influences of ENSO and PDO on the inter-decadal SST variability of the ACC around the western South Atlantic. Sustainability.

Wang, Y.-L., C.-R. Wu* (2018): Discordant multi-decadal trend in the intensity of the Kuroshio along its path during 1993-2013. Scientific Reports, 8, 14633.

Wang, Y.-L., C.-R. Wu*, and S.-Y. Chao (2016): Warming and weakening trends of the Kuroshio during 1993-2013. Geophysical Research Letters, 43(17), 9200-9207.

Research

Rapid surface warming of the Pacific Asian marginal seas since the late 1990s The sea surface temperature rise of the East Asian marginal seas, especially in areas where the Kuroshio intrudes, has far exceeded the rate of global ocean warming. We attribute this to warming of the Pacific Warm Pool since the 1990s. Intensified trade winds warmed the Pacific Warm Pool and caused the surface Kuroshio and the regions where it intrudes into marginal seas to warm rapidly in the late 1990s.

Nonstationary El Niño teleconnection on the post-summer upwelling off Vietnam Summer upwelling has often been observed off Vietnam in the South China Sea (SCS). Fluctuations of the East Asian monsoon associated with El Niño are considered responsible for the weakened or abolished upwelling. However, analyses of observations performed in the present study were equivocal in terms of the dominant influence of El Niño. Weak upwelling off Vietnam occurs more frequently during periods of accelerated global warming compared to warming hiatus periods. Warming signals in the Indian Ocean vanished relatively quickly during the hiatus period. The accompanying easterly anomalies south of the anomalous anticyclone (AAC) in the northwestern Pacific were also weakened, reducing the impact of the El Niño teleconnection on the SCS summer monsoon and thus preserving the regular post-summer upwelling off Vietnam during warming hiatus periods.

Discordant multi-decadal trend in the intensity of the Kuroshio along its path during 1993-2013 The Kuroshio transports warm water in the Pacific poleward from the tropics and plays a crucial role in modulating surrounding climate. Based on independent data sets, we demonstrated that the Kuroshio weakened downstream east of Taiwan, but intensified upstream east of Luzon Island during 1993–2013. The surface velocity (volume transport) of the Kuroshio has decreased 12.5% (4~5%) off east Taiwan but increased 18% (8~18%) off east Luzon. The discordant upstream–downstream trend was attributable to changes in oceanic eddies and basin surface winds: greater (lesser) cyclonic eddies, lesser (greater) anticyclonic eddies, and positive (negative) tendency in the Pacific Basin wind curl contributed to a weakened (intensified) downstream (upstream) Kuroshio