Kuroshio Variability on the Shelf of the East China Sea

Abstract

OBJECTIVESThrough the aforementioned ONR-supported project, an array of eleven IESs (inverted echo sounders) was deployed in the ECS for nearly two years between December 2002 and November 2004 to study the spatio-temporal structure of the Kuroshio. The IES array was deployed in the Okinawa Trough at depths deeper than 500m. The Kuroshio, however, extends to the outer continental shelf. This NICOP project aims to (1) observe the part of the Kuroshio over the outer continental shelf of the ECS and thus quantify its entire transport (along with IES data simultaneously obtained in the Okinawa Trough), and (2) determine the relationship between the IES-measured characteristics of the Kuroshio off the shelf and its transport over the shelf in order to estimate its total transport for the 23-month period of IES deployment. APPROACHTwo moorings equipped with acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs, RDI Model WHS300) were deployed in October 2003 in the ECS at approximately 150~m and 280~m depths northwest of the IES array, in order to measure the Kuroshio flow over the outer shelf. At the shallower site (mooring A1), 1