Observations of oceanic fronts and water-mass properties in the central Japan Sea: Repeated surveys from an underwater glider

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmarsys.2019.103242
• Publication Date: 2019-10-28T16:31:17Z
• Authors: Taku Wagawa; Yusuke Kawaguchi; Yosuke Igeta; Naoto Honda; Takeshi Okunishi; Itsuka Yabe
• Keywords: Temperature salinity diagrams; Boundary current; Bathythermograph; Eddy; Anticyclone

Repeated glider surveys were conducted in the Japan Sea during April–June 2016. Observations revealed mesoscale hydrographic structures of subpolar front, Tsushima Warm Current, and eddies formed around flows central off Sado Island, addition to fine-scale water properties associated with variation. Data collected from satellite altimeters thermometers, profiling floats, ship conductivity–temperature–depth profiles also analyzed elucidate spatiotemporal characteristics multiscale phenomena: fine scale. We present new quantitative estimates geostrophic volume transports Current front current Sea, based on data glider's transects: they are, respectively, 2.5–2.7 Sv 1.1–1.4 Sv. The frontal/eddy varied greatly a timescale less than one month. classified masses, which that upper-layer, low-salinity within an anticyclonic eddy, was characterized terms salinity <34.0, potential density (σθ) 25.5 kg m−3 < σθ ≤ 26.1 m−3, vertical thickness >100 m this region, for there are few measurement data.