Statistical characteristics of individual waves in laboratory wind waves I. Individual wave spectra and similarity structure     

Masayuki Tokuda  Yoshiaki Toba 《Journal of Oceanography》1981,37(5):243-258

Statistical characteristics of individual waves in laboratory wind waves have been studied by use of a wind-wave tunnel. The individual waves are defined by actual undulations of the water surface at any instant, and are characterized by concentrated shearing stress and strong vorticity at their crests. A conspicuous self-similarity structure is found in the individual wave field. The similarity manifests itself as a simple spectral form, and as the statistical 3/2-power law between nondimensional wave height and wave period, and further as the -1/2-power relationship between nondimensional phase speed and frequency, for waves of the high frequency side. The normalized energy spectrum, specially defined for individual waves, has a form practically equivalent to the traditional spectrum for component waves in the main frequency range from 0.7 to 1.5 in the frequency normalized by the peak frequency, but does not have secondary peaks at harmonics. The phase speed of individual waves also coincides with that of component waves in the main frequency range.  相似文献   

Hydrographic structure of the Kuroshio large meander-cold water mass region down to the deeper layers of the ocean     

Haruo Ishii  Yoshihiko Sekine  Yoshiaki Toba 《Journal of Oceanography》1983,39(5):240-250

The hydrographic structure of the region of large meander of the Kuroshio and the large cold water mass, which were formed in 1975, was observed down to the ocean bottom, during three cruises of the R/VHakuho Maru in September 1975, September 1976, and December 1977. The analysis of observed data indicates the following common features: the horizontal gradient of the specific volume anomaly exists down to a 3,500 db surface, corresponding to the existence of baroclinic geostrophic current down to this depth. These facts demonstrate that the current of the Kuroshio is not confined to the upper layer during periods of existence of the large meander. On a T-S diagram, the Kuroshio water and the water in the large cold water mass can be discriminated down to a 5°C surface, but there is evidence of mixing due to conspicuous interleaving between the two water masses, near the thermocline. Below the thermocline, water types defined by points on the T-S diagram can be traced from a deeper level in the Kuroshio water to a shallower level in the cold water mass, indicating that in the deeper layers the Kuroshio water continues to be uplifted toward the center of the cold water mass. The same inference is also obtained from the distribution of dissolved oxygen.  相似文献   

Sea-surface roughness length fluctuating in concert with wind and waves   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Yoshiaki Toba  Naoto Ebuchi 《Journal of Oceanography》1991,47(3):63-79

When the nondimensional aerodynamic roughness parameter for the sea surface (gz ₀/u _* ²,g being the acceleration of gravity,u _* the air friction velocity) is plotted as a function of the wave age, the data points in the diagram are distributed mostly in a triangle area between the Charnock formula and the Toba-Koga formula; the nondimensional roughness perameter is not expressed as a unique function of the wave age, but rather there seem to be multiple regimes. In order to investigate the cause of the data point scattering, a reanalysis was made of the 4.5-hour time series of the wind profile and wind-wave statistics which were obtained at an oceanographic tower station under the conditions of a winter monsoon wind having slightly fluctuating speed and steadily growing wind waves.It is concluded that the averaged variation ofz ₀ is given by the Toba-Koga formula with a constant of value 0.015. However, as a result of the wind fluctuation on the time scales ranging from several minutes to an hour, data points show a conspicuous fluctuation on the nondimensional roughness parameter-wave age diagram in the direction transverse to the averaged variation. The variation inz ₀ directly reflects the degree of over- or under-saturation in the high-frequency range of the wind-wave spectra. Physical interpretation of these variations is also presented.  相似文献   

Local balance in the air-sea boundary processes   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Yoshiaki Toba 《Journal of Oceanography》1973,29(2):70-75

In the course of the new treatment of the growth process of wind waves presented in part I of the present series of the articles, there was a point where the wave energy and wave momentum were not related correctly. This point has been revised with critical argument, and at the same time, the form of the ratior, between the wind stress that directly enter the wind waves and the total wind stress, has been derived analytically. The growth equation, under the condition that the wind stress is constant, is still the same with that derived in part I, with the exception that the ratior is given analytically.A comparison between the ratior obtained analytically and that estimated empirically in part I, raises a problem to be studied about the wave current of the actual wind waves.  相似文献   

Unusual Behavior of the Kuroshio Current System from Winter 1996 to Summer 1997 Revealed by ADEOS-OCTS and Other Data (Continued): A Study from Broad External Conditions with Bottom Topography     

Yoshiaki Toba  Junichi Kimura  Hiroshi Murakami  Myoungsun Kim  Yasushi Yoshikawa  Koji Shimada 《Journal of Oceanography》2001,57(2):141-154

In the previous paper (Toba and Murakami, 1998) we reported on an unusual path of the Kuroshio Current System, which occurred in April 1997 (April 1997 event), using the Ocean Color and Temperature Scanner (OCTS) data of the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS). The April 1997 event was characterized by the flow of the Kuroshio along the western slope (northward) and the eastern slope (southward) of the Izu-Ogasawara Ridge, a very southerly turning point at about 32°N, followed by a straight northward path up to 37°N of the Kuroshio Extension along the eastern flank of the Izu-Ogasawara and the Japan Trenches. Overlaying of depth contours on ADEOS-OCTS chlorophyll-a images at the April 1997 event demonstrates the bottom topography effects on the current paths. A new finding based on TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data is that the sea-surface gradient across the Kuroshio/Kuroshio Extension diminished greatly in the sea area southeast of the central Japan, as a very temporary phenomenon prior to this event. This temporary diminishing of the upper-ocean current velocity might have caused a stronger bottom effect along the Izu-Ogasawara Ridge, and over the Izu-Ogasawara Trench disclosed a weak background, barotropic trench-flank current pattern, which existed otherwise independently of the Kuroshio Extension. The very southerly path of the Kuroshio Extension from winter 1996 to autumn 1998 corresponded, with a time lag of about 1.5 years, to the previous La Niña tendency with weaker North Equatorial Current. The April 1997 event occurred in accordance with its extreme condition.  相似文献   

Measurement of skin friction distribution along the surface of wind waves     

Kuniaki Okuda  Sanshiro Kawai  Yoshiaki Toba 《Journal of Oceanography》1977,33(4):190-198

Measurements of local values of the skin friction have been made at many points along the surface of representative wind wave crests in a wind wave tunnel, by use of the distortion of hydrogen-bubble lines. The results obtained at 2.85-m fetch under 6.2 m s^–1 mean wind speed show that the intensity of the skin friction varies greatly along the surface of wind waves as a function of the phase angle. It increases rather continuously at the windward surface toward the crest, attains a value of about 12 dyn cm^–2 near the crest, decreases suddenly just past the crest, and the value at the lee surface is substantially zero Values of the skin friction thus determined along the representative wind waves give an average value of 3.6 dyn cm^–2, rather exceeding the overall stress value of 3.0 dyn cm^–2, which has been estimated from the wind profile. The results are interpreted as that the skin friction bears most of the shearing stress of wind, and that it exerts most intensively around the representative wave crests at their windward faces.  相似文献   

Field data support of three-seconds power law andgu *σ−4-spectral form for growing wind waves     

Sanshiro Kawai  Kozo Okada  Yoshiaki Toba 《Journal of Oceanography》1977,33(3):137-150

Observational data on air-sea boundary processes at the Shirahama Oceanographic Tower Station, Kyoto University, obtained in November, 1969, was analyzed and presented as an example representing the structure of growing wind-wave field. The condition was an ideal onshore wind, and the data contained continuous records of the wind speed at four heights, the wind direction, the air and water temperatures, the tides, and the growing wind waves, for more than six hours. The main results are as follows. Firstly, in both of the wind speed and the sea surface wind stress, rather conspicuous variations of about six-minute period were appreciable. Secondly, the three-seconds power law and its lemma expressed byH ^*=BT ^*3/2 and=2BT ^*–1/2, respectively, are very well supported by the data, whereH ^*(gH/u _* ²) andT ^*(gT/u _*) are the dimensionless significant wave height and period, respectively, the wave steepness,u _* the friction velocity of air,g the acceleration of gravity, andB=0.062 is a universal constant. Thirdly, the spectral form for the high-frequency side of the spectral maximum is well expressed by the form of()= _sgu_*^–4, where is the angular frequency and() the spectral density. The value of _s is determined as 0.062±0.010 from the observational data. There is a conspicuous discrepancy between the spectral shape of wind waves obtained in wind-wave tunnels and those in the sea, the former containing well-defined higher harmonics of the spectral peak, and consequently there is an apparent difference in the values of _s also. However, it is shown that the discrepancy of _s may be eliminated by evaluating properly the energy level of the spectral form containing higher harmonics.  相似文献   

Spin-up and spin-down processes of the large cold water mass of the Kuroshio south of Japan     

Yoshihiko Sekine  Haruo Ishii  Yoshiaki Toba 《Journal of Oceanography》1985,41(4):207-212

Time variation of the cold water mass of the Kuroshio south of Japan, which was formed in August 1975 and disappeared in August 1980, is studied. Its lifecycle includes several repetitions of spin-down and spin-up processes. The spin-down (or the spin-up) process is accompanied by warming (cooling) of the cold water mass and descending (ascending) motion of the inner water. Expansion of the cold water area is also associated with the spin-up period while shrinking occurs in the spin-down period. The rate of spin-down of the cold water mass is approximately equal to that of the Gulf Stream rings. The spin-up process is not observed in the Gulf Stream rings and the longer lifetime of the cold water mass off Japan, in comparison with the Gulf Stream rings, is due to the existence of the spin-up periods. The spin-up process tends to occur in late spring to summer, and it seems to be related to the seasonal variation in intensity of the Kuroshio.  相似文献   

Possible future trends in the study of global climate system and the “Journal of Oceanography”     

Yoshiaki Toba 《Journal of Oceanography》1992,48(1):1-4

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Forced convection accompanying wind waves     

Yoshiaki Toba  Masayuki Tokuda  Kuniaki Okuda  Sanshiro Kawai 《Journal of Oceanography》1975,31(5):192-198

Wind-wave tunnel experiments reveal, by use of techniques of the flow visualization, that wind waves are accompanied by the wind drift surface current with large velocity shear and with horizontal variation of velocity relative to the wave profile. The surface current converges from the crest to a little leeward face of the crest, making a downward flow there, even though the wave is not breaking. Namely, wind waves are accompanied by forced convections relative to the crests of the waves. Since the location of the convergence and the downward flow travels on the water surface as the crest of the wave propagates, the motion as a whole is characterized by turbulent structure as well as by the nature of water-surface waves. In this meaning, the term of real wind waves is proposed in contrast with ordinary water waves. The study of real wind waves will be essential in future development of the study of wind waves.  相似文献