GODAE (Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment)

Home

Registration

Preparation of papers

Presenters

Programme

Contact

Roles of frontal wave in the East China Sea on the Kuroshio path variation

Norihisa Usui1
Hiroyuki Tsujino 1, Yosuke Fujii 1, Masafumi Kamachi 1

(1) Meteorological Research Institute (MRI) - Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Japan

Main authors appear in bold

A generation process of a small meander southeast of Kyushu that triggered the subsequent Kuroshio large meander in 2004 has been investigated using an eddy-resolving ocean prediction system named MOVE/MRI.COM-WNP. From the prediction results, it is revealed that a frontal wave from the East China Sea (ECS) accompanying high potential vorticity (high-PV) plays an essential role for the generation of the small meander. The frontal wave is generated as a result of collision between a strong anticyclonic eddy and the Kuroshio east of Taiwan. Then it propagates along the Kuroshio accompanying high-PV generated around the continental shelf edge by viscosity. These proposed processes suggest an importance of large scale GODAE products for reproducing oceanic conditions in the ECS, which is important also for the variations of the Kuroshio south of Japan.

Poster presentation

Back


This workshop is an initiative of the IGST (International GODAE Steering Team) under the special direction of Pierre De Mey, LEGOS (Laboratoire d'Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales)