Copyright © The Oceanographic Society of Japan. Winter Counter-wind Currents off the Southeastern China Coast: A Review

This review covers the discovery and studies of the year-round northeastward cur-rents off the southeastern China coast, paying special attention to its upwind charac-teristic in winter, mainly focusing on work by Chinese oceanographers. This current system is a prominent and unique phenomenon in the shelf circulation of the world ocean. The general features of the current system are summarized. The evidence for the existence and the variation of the three parts of the currents—the South China Sea Warm Current, the Taiwan Strait Warm Current and the Taiwan Warm Cur-rent—are separately elucidated. The formation mechanisms of the current as a whole are explained using dynamic analysis and numerical simulation results. Some sugges-tions for further studies are also made. appear to be counter-wind in winter and downwind in summer. Through nearly 40 years of efforts by Chinese oce-anic organizations and scientists (including the investi-gation of Taiwan scientists on circulation around Taiwan