2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Spatial and temporal variations of the material transport processes in the Ariake Sea

Research Project

Project/Area Number	19710013
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Environmental dynamic analysis
Research Institution	Nagasaki University
Principal Investigator	MANDA Atsuyoshi Nagasaki University, 水産学部, 准教授 (00343343)
Project Period (FY)	2007 – 2009
Keywords	物質循環 / 海洋環境
Research Abstract	Short-term variations in the residual currents in the Ariake Sea, which is a semi-enclosed basin located southwestern part of Japan, are investigated though intensive field campaigns and numerical experiments. Regardless of season, lateral shear dominates at spring tide and vertical shear is intensified at neap tide. The density-driven current dominates the overall structure of the residual current. The Ekman number is the dominant parameter that controls the overall structure of the density-driven current, indicating that the magnitude of the tidal mixing is the most important factor that controls the structure of the density-driven current. The current structure is not sensitive to the Kelvin number, which suggests the bay width is not a constraint on the density-driven current.