A winter warm pool southwest of Hainan Island due to the orographic wind wake

Abstract

A winter warm pool off the southwest coast of Hainan Island is uncovered from high resolution satellite measurements and field observations. The warm pool is characterized by warm temperature relative to the surroundings. It forms in October, intensifies from November to next January, and decays in February. Our results show that the wind wake in the northeast winter monsoon due to the orographic blockage by mountains of Hainan Island plays an important role in generating the warm pool by reducing surface latent heat flux. The core temperature of the warm pool is correlated with the El Nino and Southern Oscillation.