Noriaki Gohda

Coastal acoustic tomography system and its field application

The coastal acoustic tomography system (CATS), composed of five moored acoustic stations, has been constructed to measure current fields. The system is developed with special considerations in mind, including the use of Global Positioning System clock signals in the synchronization of the system clock timing among the multiple acoustic stations, and the use of the differently coded Gold sequences to identify the acoustic signals corresponding to individual stations from a received signal. The CATS was successfully applied to map the structure of strongly nonlinear tidal currents in the coastal sea. In spite of the limited spatial resolution caused by inadequate sound transmission data, the two-dimensional tidal vortices features of growth, translation, and decay processes are reconstructed through an inverse analysis of the acoustic travel time obtained among the station pairs. It is evident that the CATS is a powerful tool for measuring variable current fields generated in the coastal seas.

The Kuroshio East of Taiwan and in the East China Sea and the Currents East of Ryukyu Islands during Early Summer of 1996

Using hydrographic data and moored current meter records and the ADCP observed current data during May–June 1996, a modified inverse method is applied to calculate the Kuroshio east of Taiwan and in the East China Sea and the currents east of Ryukyu Islands. There are three branches of the Kuroshio east of Taiwan. The Kuroshio in the East China Sea comes from the main (first) and second branches of the Kuroshio east of Taiwan. The easternmost (third) branch of the Kuroshio flows northeastward to the region east of Ryukyu Islands. The net northward volume transports of the Kuroshio through Section K2 southeast of Taiwan and Section PN in the East China Sea are 44.4×106 and 27.2×106 m3s−1, respectively. The western boundary current east of Ryukyu Islands comes from the easternmost branch of the Kuroshio east of Taiwan and an anticyclonic recirculating gyre more east, making volume transports of 10 to 15×106 m3s−1. At about 21°N, 127°E southeast of Taiwan, there is a cold eddy which causes branching of the Kuroshio there.

A Structure of the Kuroshio and Its Related Upwelling on the East China Sea Shelf Slope

The ADCP on an advanced towed fish with controllable main and tail wings, called DRAKE measured a detailed sectional structure of the Kuroshio flowing to the NE along the East China Sea shelf slope west of Okinawa. At the observation period, a countercurrent directed to the SW formed in near-bottom water on the shelf slope. The horizontal flow perpendicular to the stream axis of the Kuroshio constructed a convergence zone around the boundary between the Kuroshio and the countercurrent. An intensive upwelling with the maximum velocity of 2.8 cm s−1 was found to distribute on the shelf slope around the convergence zone. A dynamic cause of this intensive upwelling is discussed carefully.

Kuroshio Stream path variation and its associated velocity structures south of Shikoku, Japan

During 1993-1995, twelve repeat observations of the Kuroshio south of Shikoku, Japan were carried out for obtaining a vertical velocity section of the upper 300m, using a towed-type acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). Among the twelve observations, the Kuroshio took the onshore path 9 times and the offshore path 3 times. The cross-stream velocity distribution around the Kuroshio stream axis is asymmetric (steeper on the onshore side than on the offshore side) for the onshore path while it is symmetric for the offshore one. The core with a maximum velocity is submerged to 100-200m depths for the onshore case and located at the near surface for the offshore case. In the combined analysis with the Rapid Bulletin of Ocean Conditions, the Kuroshio mainly took an onshore path with stream-axis positions less than 80km from Cape Ashizuri, but the distance was increased over 150km at the frequency once a year.

Mapping Tidal Current Structures in Zhitouyang Bay, China, Using Coastal Acoustic Tomography

The first Chinese coastal acoustic tomography (CAT) experiment for mapping the tidal currents in Zhitouyang Bay near Zhoushan Island was successfully performed with seven acoustic stations from July 12 to 13, 2009. Using CAT, the horizontal distributions of the tidal currents in the tomography domain were calculated by the inverse analysis, in which the travel time differences for sound traveling reciprocally between the station pairs are used as data. The specified tidal current structures, such as the strong east-west oscillation of the tidal current, the branched current, and the tidal vortices, were reconstructed as snapshots at the successive tidal phases. The relative vorticity calculated from the inverted current fields served to specify the current structures, such as tidal vortices. The inversion-estimated uncertainty of (0.02-0.08) m s-1 narrowed the root-mean-square difference (RMSD) of (0.00-0.11) m s-1 between the 3-min interval original data and the hourly mean data for all the sampled data, which may be regarded as a measure of error. Throughout the tidal phases, the divergence from the inverted current showed a positive (negative) distribution in the shallow (deep) region as an overall view. However, the divergence for the entire tomography domain was nearly equal to zero, corresponding to no net transport. This result implies that the observational errors are quite small for the present experiment. This experiment reaffirms that coastal acoustic tomography is an accurate and efficient observational method for continuously mapping tidal current structures in coastal regions that are characterized by heavy shipping traffic and active fishing.

Optimum design of the ocean acoustic tomography system for the Sea of Japan

An ocean acoustic tomography system covering the region of 800×1000 km with the spatial resolution of eddy-resolving scales has been designed on the basis of computer experiments using the hydrographic data collected in the Sea of Japan. The optimum number of acoustic sources required for 20 acoustic receivers was estimated as 13 by changing the source number. The spatial resolution for the optimum system was 41 km smaller than the dominant size of meso-scale eddies in the Sea of Japan. The effect of travel-time errors on tomographic maps is also quantified.

Acoustic Measurement of Multisubtidal Internal Modes Generated in Hiroshima Bay, Japan

A coastal acoustic tomography (CAT) experiment with seven acoustic stations was successfully carried out to measure multisubtidal internal modes, generated in Hiroshima Bay, Japan, in spite of severe data gaps due to many oyster aquaculture rafts, accompanied by an array of vertical wire strings for growing oysters and distributed widely over the bay. The travel-time data acquired along five transmission lines with better data acquisition rates in one-way or reciprocal directions are analyzed, focusing on subtidal variations of sound speed (proportional to temperature). Significant multisubtidal internal modes are observed in the period range of 1.0-4.0 h. To specify the source region of internal modes and to estimate their propagation speed and direction, the power-spectral and cross-spectral analyses are applied to the time-series data of range-averaged sound speed along the successful transmission lines. Waves of period ranges 3.8-4.2, 2.0-2.3, and 1.4-1.5 h are identified as the second, third, and fourth modes of long internal waves, respectively, and the first internal mode is attributed to the semidiurnal tide. It is suggested that the source region of internal modes is located in the narrow channel at the northeastern corner of the tomography site and the modes radiate out from the source region, satisfying the propagation parameters (period, phase speed, and propagation direction) determined by this study. The propagation parameters of the subtidal internal modes can also be measured by point temperature sensors, attached to aquaculture rafts with an appropriate arrangement. However, it should be noted that the tomographic technique can confirm temperature variations through a spatial average along each ray path.

The Characteristic Distribution of Silica over the East China Sea Shelf Slope

The localized near-bottom water with silica content higher than that in the adjacent shelf water was observed to exist at the eastern margins of the East China Sea continental shelf. The core of the high silica water possessed the silica content corresponding to that in the Kuroshio at depths greater than on the shelf. The mixing analysis of water masses using temperature (T) and silica (Si) showed that the core water can be produced through the vertical mixing of intermediate water of the Kuroshio deeper than 100 m. This study provides us a conclusion that the intermediate water of the Kuroshio is strongly mixed on the shelf slope and then upwelled to form the ridge-like distribution of water masses with low temperature and high silica content at the shelf edge.

Towed ADCP Fish with Depth and Roll Controllable Wings and Its Application to the Kuroshio Observation

An intelligent ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) fish, called “DRAKE” (Depth and Roll Adjustable Kite for Energy flux measurements) was developed with the controllable wings which can adjust the submerging depth of the fish and stabilize its roll motion. The Kuroshio west of Okinawa was measured in a roundtrip course on the same traverse line by the ADCP fish. The forward survey obtained the maximum submerging depth of 208 m at a fish operation speed of 2.9 ms−1. The maximum fish speed of 5.4 ms−1 was achieved at a submerging depth of 48 m in the return survey. The data in the overlapped area of data acquisition between depths 212 and 276 m were used to examine the accuracy of velocity measurement for the towed ADCP system. The summation of both survey data made it possible to estimate a sectional velocity structure and transport of the upper 600 m corresponding roughly to the whole section of the Kuroshio in this region.

Observation of mixed Rossby-gravity waves in the Western equatorial Pacific

During the IOP (Intensive Observation Period) of TOGA/COARE (Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere/Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment) from December 1992 to February 1993, four Japanese moored ADCPs (Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers) measured vertical profiles of three-component velocities at the stations 2S (2°S, 156°E), 2N (2°N, 156°E), 154E (0°N, 154°E) and 147E (0°N, 147°E). Power spectra of the surface current showed a pronounced peak having a period of around 14 days for both the zonal and meridional velocities at the stations 2S and 2N near the equator, and for only the meridional velocity at the equator. This 14-day phenomenon is considered to be a kind of equatorial wave of the first baroclinic mode, from a comparison of the result of the vertical mode analysis and the vertical distribution of the standard deviation of band-pass filtered velocity fluctuations. A dispersion relationship obtained from the horizontal mode analysis of this wave confirmed that the 14-day phenomenon is a mixed Rossby-gravity wave with the westward propagating phase speed and eastward propagating group velocity. From the cross-spectral analysis of velocity data, the average phase speed and wavelength of the wave were estimated as 3.64 m s−1 and 3939 km, respectively, for station pair 2S∼147E. These values were in good agreement with the average phase speed and wavelength of 3.58 m s−1 and 3836 km estimated from the dispersion curve and the observed period. A northerly wind burst blew over all the mooring sites during the middle of the observation period. The mixed Rossby-gravity wave, which is anti-symmetric for the zonal velocity about the equator, is likely to be forced by this northerly wind burst crossing the equator. Generation of the oceanic mixed Rossby-gravity wave of the first baroclinic mode is discussed in association with the atmospheric Rossby wave having the same period.