Japan / East Sea: Historical Data Analysis

Project Summary PI: Amy Bower (WHOI) We are using historical hydrographic data primarily from the Master Oceanographic Observations Data Set at the U. S. Naval Oceanographic Office to develop an improved description of upper layer circulation in the Japan (East) Sea (JES). Of particular value to this study are a number of repeated Air-deployed Expendable Bathythermograph (AXBT) surveys of the JES and East China Sea (ECS) collected over several years. The upper layer circulation in the southern JES is dominated by mesoscale and seasonal variability, and the AXBT surveys provide a cost-effective means for addressing the following three objectives: 1) describe the synoptic, three-dimensional structure of the branching Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) and its seasonal variability; 2) compile a census of mesoscale eddies in the JES, caracterize their horizontal and vertical structure and the effect of seasonal buoyancy fluxes on that structure; and 3) provide a better description of the origin of the TWC in the ECS and seasonal variability in its T-S characteristics.

Manuscripts Gordon, A. L., C. F. Giulivi, C. M. Lee, H. H. Furey, A. Bower, and L. Talley, 2002. Japan/East Sea intra-thermocline eddies. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 32, 1960-1974. Furey, H., and A. S. Bower, 2005. Synoptic temperature structure of the East China and southeastern Japan/East Seas. Deep Sea Res. II, 52, 1421-1442.

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