Takeshi Matsuno

A surface velocity spiral observed with ADCP and HF radar in the Tsushima Strait

[1] The structure of a wind-driven flow in the Tsushima Strait is investigated with moored acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) and HF radar. Two ADCPs of high and low acoustic frequencies are simultaneously used to measure velocities in both the surface boundary layer and the interior with high resolutions. The velocity relative to an interior flow in the surface boundary layer is estimated by subtracting the reference velocity (estimated from velocities at greater depths) from a velocity in the surface layer, and complex principal component analysis (PCA) of the lagged wind stress and the relative velocity is performed. Despite a short (2 weeks) observation period of relatively calm and variable wind, a clockwise velocity spiral similar to a theoretical Ekman spiral is detected as the first mode of PCA. Ekman transport estimated from the relative velocities of the first mode agrees best with Ekman transport expected from wind stress of the first mode with 11–13 hours time lag, for which the explained variance of the first mode is also largest. This indicates that a wind-driven flow is balanced with wind stress after 11–13 hours, half of the inertial period at this latitude. Eddy viscosity is also inferred from wind stress and the relative velocities of the first mode. It is found to increase from O(10 � 3 )m 2 s � 1 at greater depth to O(10 � 2 )m 2 s � 1 near the sea surface.

Two-Way Particle-Tracking Model for Specifying Sources of Drifting Objects: Application to the East China Sea Shelf

Abstract The two-way Lagrangian particle-tracking model (PTM) is proposed for specifying sources of objects drifting with random-walk processes on the sea surface. First, to determine object source candidates, modeled particles are released from the point (hereafter, “receptor”) where an observer finds the objects using a backward-in-time PTM with modeled ocean currents of which directions are reversed in sign. Second, the modeled particles are released from these source candidates in a forward-in-time PTM using ocean currents originally computed in hydrographic models. Third, the source candidates are considered to be reliable at a 5% significance level if the observed receptor is located inside the ellipse whose center is the mean position of the modeled particles at the time when the observer found the objects and whose axis length is twice the standard deviation computed using all modeled particle positions. The two-way PTM experiments are carried out in a realistic hydrographic model over the East Ch...

High frequency current fluctuations and cross-shelf flows around the pycnocline near the shelf break in the East China Sea

Relation between internal waves with short time scale and density distribution near the shelf break in the East China Sea is studied utilizing moored current meters, thermometers and conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) casts. A well developed pycnocline was frequently observed around 150–200 m depth near the shelf break accompanied with the development of internal waves with short time scale. During the cruise in May 1998, the intensified internal wave motion with short time scale and the distinct offshore flow were observed just below the lower pycnocline, which shoaled and extended above the shelf area. It is suggested that vertical mixing generated by amplified internal waves would produce cross-shelf ageostophic density current around the pycnocline. During the cruise in May 1999, on the other hand, the lower pycnocline was located offshore below the shelf break, and the internal wave motion was amplified just above the lower pycnocline. In this case, the offshore flow should be generated above the lower pycnocline, but vertical profiles of current velocity were not obtained because acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) data were not available around the lower pycnocline.

Estimation of Oxygen Consumption Rate Using T-DO Diagram in the Benthic Layer of Ohmura Bay, Kyushu, Japan

We have observed the temporal variation of oxygen deficient water with short time scale (less than a few days) in the central area of Ohmura Bay, Kyushu, Japan, in summer, 1995 and 1996. The vertical profiles of temperature were similar to those of dissolved oxygen. We noticed a linear relation between temperature and dissolved oxygen in the bottom layer, and applied the T-DO relation to estimate the net oxygen consumption rate, rather than direct evaluation of the advection and diffusion. Oxygen consumption rate just above the bottom was estimated to be about 0.21 g O2 m−3day−1 in July 1995, and about 0.28 g O2 m−3day−1 in August 1996. The net oxygen consumption rate estimated for the bottom layer below the second thermocline was about 0.61 g O2 m−3day−1 with variability from 0.55 to 0.66 g O2 m−3day−1 during July 25 to 29, 1995. This is was about 0.64 g O2 m−3day−1 with variability from 0.18 to 1.4 g O2 m−3day−1 during August 22 to 30, 1996. The net oxygen consumption rates are about half of those measured with a closed system in the Seto Inland Sea.

Estimates of the turbulent kinetic energy budget in the oceanic convective boundary layer

The terms of the steady-state turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budget in the oceanic convective boundary layer (CBL) are estimated by use of microstructure data obtained over the continental shelf of the East China Sea. The dissipation term is calculated from the micro-scale vertical shear of horizontal velocity measured directly using a freely-falling microstructure profiler, whereas the buoyancy flux and shear production terms are estimated indirectly by integrating vertically the one-dimensional conservation equation of density and by applying similarity theory, respectively. The transport term, calculated as the residual of the other three terms, vertically redistributes the TKE from the upper half of the CBL to the lower half, consistent with the TKE budgets in the atmospheric CBL and in shear-free and slightly-sheared CBLs simulated by large eddy-simulation models. The relatively large contribution of the transport term to the TKE budget shows that a local equilibrium form of the TKE equation is not appropriate for the TKE budget in the oceanic CBL.

Mesoscale eddies control the timing of spring phytoplankton blooms: a case study in the Japan Sea

Satellite Chlorophyll a (CHL) data was used to investigate the influence of mesoscale anticyclonic eddies (AEs) and cyclonic eddies (CEs) on the timing of spring phytoplankton bloom initiation around the Yamato Basin (133-139° E and 35-39.5° N) in the Japan Sea, for the period 2002-2011. The results showed significant differences between AEs and CEs in the timing and initiation mechanism of the spring phytoplankton bloom. Blooms were initiated earlier in CEs which were characterized by shallow mixed-layer depths ( 100 m) but close to the commencement of positive Q0. This suggests that the relaxation of turbulent mixing is crucial for the bloom initiation in AEs.

Turbulent mixing within the Kuroshio in the Tokara Strait

Turbulent mixing and background current were observed using a microstructure profiler and acoustic Doppler current profilers in the Tokara Strait, where many seamounts and small islands exist within the route of the Kuroshio in the East China Sea. Vertical structure and water properties of the Kuroshio were greatly modified downstream from shallow seamounts. In the lee of a seamount crest at 200 -m depth, the modification made the flow tend to shear instability, and the vertical eddy diffusivity is enhanced by nearly 100 times that of the upstream site, to Kρ ∼ O(10−3)–O(10−2) m2 s−1. A one-dimensional diffusion model using the observed eddy diffusivity reproduced the observed downstream evolution of the temperature-salinity profile. However, the estimated diffusion time-scale is at least 10 times longer than the observed advection time-scale. This suggests that the eddy diffusivity reaches to O(10−1) m2 s−1 in the vicinity of the seamount. At a site away from the abrupt topography, eddy diffusivity was also elevated to O(10−3) m2 s−1, and was associated with shear instability presumably induced by the Kuroshio shear and near-inertial internal-wave shear. Our study suggests that a better prediction of current, water-mass properties, and nutrients within the Kuroshio requires accurate understanding and parameterization of flow-topography interaction such as internal hydraulics, the associated internal-wave processes, and turbulent mixing processes.