Trajectory of Mesoscale Eddies in the Kuroshio Recirculation Region |
| |
| Authors: | Naoto Ebuchi Kimio Hanawa |
| |
| Institution: | (1) Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Aoba, Sendai 980-8578, Japan;(2) Department of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Aoba, Sendai 980-8578, Japan |
| |
| Abstract: | Trajectories of mesoscale eddies in the Kuroshio recirculation region were investigated by using sea surface height (SSH)
anomaly observed by the TOPEX/POSEIDON and ERS altimeters. Cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies have been traced on maps of the
filtered SSH anomaly fields composed from the altimeter observations every ten days. Both the cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies
propagate westward in the Kuroshio recirculation region from a region south of the Kuroshio Extension. The propagation speed
of these eddies has been estimated as about 7 cm s−1, which is much faster than the phase speed theoretically estimated for the baroclinic first-mode Rossby wave in the study
area. It was also found that in the Izu-Ogasawara Ridge region, most of eddies pass through the gap between the Hachijojima
Island and Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands, and some of the eddies decay around the Izu-Ogasawara Ridge. It seems that the trajectory
of the eddies is crucially affected by the bottom topography. In the region south of Shikoku and east of Kyushu, some of the
eddies coalesce with the Kuroshio. It is also suggested that this coalescence may trigger the path variation of the Kuroshio
in the sea south of Japan.
This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
| |
| Keywords: | Mesoscale eddy Kuroshio recirculation satellite altimetry remote sensing |
| 本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录！ |
|
