The Kuroshio large meander formation in 2004 analyzed by an eddy‐resolving ocean forecast system

Abstract

The recent formation of the Kuroshio large meander southeast of the Kii Peninsula during the period from May to July 2004 has been simulated successfully in an eddy‐resolving ocean forecast system (Japanese Coastal Ocean Predictability Experiment). The formation process was examined from the viewpoint of eddy‐Kuroshio interactions using sensitivity experiments that had various initial conditions for eddies in March and May 2004. We confirmed that the large meander does not occur when the trigger meander southeast of the Kyushu Island has small amplitude and that the cyclonic eddy on the offshore side of the Kuroshio contributes to the large meander formation. Our results show that the large amplitude of the trigger meander southeast of Kyushu Island in April 2004 was caused by downstream advection of anticyclonic eddies along the Kuroshio in the East China Sea from east of Taiwan. The results suggest that the successive westward propagation of strong anticyclonic eddies in the subtropical frontal region from 2003 to 2004 was the origin of the formation of the Kuroshio large meander south of Japan in summer 2004.

Structure and dynamics of the sudden acceleration of Kuroshio off Cape Shionomisaki

“…This period corresponds to the Kuroshio large meander period Miyazawa et al 2008;Usui et al 2008a, b). This indicates that the velocity jump is closely related with the path of the Kuroshio as mentioned by Kawabe (1990).…”

World’s largest macroalgal bloom caused by expansion of seaweed aquaculture in China

“…Hydrodynamic model output was taken from the Japan Coastal Ocean Predictability Experiment (JCOPE) Miyazawa et al, 2008) and accessed at http://www.jamstec.go.jp/ frcgc/jcope/. The results of this ocean forecasting system have been applied with caution.…”

Short-term fluctuations south of Japan and their relationship with the Kuroshio path: 8- to 36-day fluctuations

“…The available dataset in this study includes daily-mean data, spanning about five and a quarter years (February 23, 2006to May 31, 2011, which is longer than the roughly four and half years (August 2003 to December 2007) of the dataset used by Miyama and Miyazawa (2013). Note that the dataset used in this study does not include the large-meander period from the second half of 2004 to the first half of 2005 (Miyazawa et al 2008). Therefore, we discuss the short-term fluctuations during the periods of the nearshore non-large-meander and the offshore non-large-meander paths of the Kuroshio.…”