2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Interaction between submesoscale flows and microscale turbulent mixing, and their impacts on nutrients supply near the Kuroshio Front
| Project/Area Number |
20710002
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Environmental dynamic analysis
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| Research Institution | Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
NAGAI Takeyoshi Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, 海洋科学部, 助教 (90452044)
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| Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha) |
山崎 秀勝 東京海洋大学, 海洋科学部, 教授 (80260537)
AMIT Tandon マサチューセッツ大学ダートマウス校, 物理学科, 教授
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| Project Period (FY) |
2008 – 2010
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| Keywords | サブメソスケール / フロント / 黒潮 / 乱流混合 / セカンダリーフ / 舌状分布 / サブダクション / 湧昇 |
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| Research Abstract |
A series of oceanographic field campaigns has been conducted to elucidate whether the Kuroshio Front is a site of enhanced microscale turbulent dissipation, and to investigate the impacts of submesoscale phenomena on watermass formations and nutrient supply. We found that the Kuroshio Front is the site of turbulent dissipation and mixing not only in the surface mixed layer front, but also in the thermocline under the Kuroshio main stream. The results from the numerical simulations of the Kuroshio with initial conditions taken from the observations suggest that the Kuroshio Front is also a major internal wave generator. The results of nutrient sample shows that the nutrient-rich Oyashio water can be penetrated into the nutrient-poor Kuroshio water, possibly fertilizing the Kuroshio by submesoscale subduction in the surface mixed layer front of the Kuroshio.
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