Spatiotemporal variations of mesoscale eddies in the Japan Sea
Full
- 1. School of Marine Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
- 2. First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao 266061, China
- 3. College of Meteorology and Oceanography, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China
- 4. Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai 519082, China
In this paper, surface characteristics of mesoscale eddies in the Japan Sea (JES), including size, polarity, life cycle, amplitude, and trajectory, are analyzed by using eddy datasets and sea level anomaly altimeter data from 1993 to 2019. Over the 27-year period, a total of 1429 eddies were detected with nearly equal number of cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies (CEs and AEs, respectively). Strong seasonal variability was observed for both polarities of eddy. The eddies were most generated in autumn, followed by winter and the least in the spring. Mesoscale eddies are prone to generate in the Ulleung Basin and Yamato Basin, which distributed in a southwest-northeast zonal belt. Among them, ACs are dominant in the southern JES, while CEs in the northern JES near the Tsugaru Strait. The western and southern movements of the mesoscale eddies were driven by the East Korean Warm Current and Tsushima Warm Current. In the northern JES, the mesoscale eddies were more related to the Liman cold current and subpolar front current. Further studies shown that dynamical instability is an important reason for the generation of eddies in autumn and winter. However, semi-enclosed basins, local flow fields, and complex air-sea interactions may all have a certain impact on the generation and dissipation of the mesoscale eddies.
Xiao Yang, Yongchui Zhang, Changshui Xia, Changming Dong, Nan Hu, Haodi Wang, Shiyao Chen.
Spatiotemporal variations of mesoscale eddies in the Japan Sea[J].
Haiyang Xuebao,
2022
, 44
(6)
: 22
-36
.
DOI: 10.12284/hyxb2022035