2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Spontaneous generation and dissipation of near-inertial internal waves from the Kuroshio Front
| Project/Area Number |
24684036
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
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| Allocation Type | Partial Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Meteorology/Physical oceanography/Hydrology
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| Research Institution | Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
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| Keywords | 黒潮 / 近慣性内部波 / 乱流 / 微細構造 / フロント / 二重拡散対流 / 黒潮続流 / 自律型プロファイリングフロート |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
In this study, a microstructure profiling float and EM-APEX floats were deployed along the Kuroshio Extension Front in July 2013. The observed velocity data by EM-APEX floats exhibits banded phase structures of near-inertial internal waves with pronounced thermohaline interleaving structures below 150 m depth along the Kuroshio Extension over 900 km. The measured microstructure data show that the turbulence within the thermohaline interleaving structures was relatively weaker but microscale thermal variance dissipation rates were very large. These results suggest that subinertial and near-inertial shear catalyze the formations of double-diffusion favorable conditions and promote vertical mixing of tracer under the Kuroshio Extension Front. The results from the numerical simulations suggest that these near-inertial waves with large amplitudes can be generated spontaneously from the Kuroshio with no external forcing.
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| Free Research Field |
海洋物理学
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