Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Outbreak of warm water from the Kuroshio South of Japan

A combined analysis of satellite and OMLET oceanographic data

  • Short Contribution
  • Published:
Journal of the Oceanographical Society of Japan Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

During the concentrated observation (April–May 1988) conducted as a part of the Ocean Mixed Layer Experiment (OMLET) in the sea area south of Japan, a conspicuous outbreak of warm water occurred from the large-meander region of the Kuroshio toward the southwest in the direction of the former Ocean Weather Station “T”. A series of NOAA-AVHRR infrared images clearly showed the process of this event. A surface buoy-mooring system deployed in this experiment recorded the arrival of this outbreak of water, in terms of the rise of sea-surface temperature (SST) of 1.5°C and the flow of warm water of 1.5kt toward the northwest at “T”. We studied this phenomenon by combining time series of infrared SST images with the oceanographic data obtained by two research vessels. The warm water was about 100 m deep in the section at 137°E along the edge of the Off-Shikoku Warm Water. It was estimated that about twenty outbreaks of this kind in a year can compensate a large heat loss to the atmosphere above this ocean region.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Asai, T. (ed.) (1988): The Preliminary Report of the Hakuho Maru Cruise KH-88-2 (OMLET Cruise). Ocean Res. Inst., Univ. of Tokyo, 98pp.

  • Cornillon, P., Evans, D. and Large, W. (1986): Warm outbreaks of the Gulf Stream into the Sargasso Sea. J. Geophys. Res.,91, 6583–6596.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsiung, J. (1985): Estimates of global oceanic meridional heat transport. J. Phys. Oceanogr.,15, 1405–1413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iwasaka, N. and K. Hanawa (1990): Climatologies of marine meteorological variables and surface fluxes in the North Pacific computed from COADS. Tohoku Geophys. J. (Sci. Rep. Tohoku Univ., Ser. 5),33, 185–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kawamura, H., K. Hanawa and Y. Toba (1984): On the characteristic structure of horizontal interleaving at the northern edge of the Kuroshio and the Kuroshio Extension. In: Ocean Hydrodynamics of the Japan and East China Seas, ed. T. Ichiye, Elsevier, 333–346.

  • Kurasawa, Y., K. Hanawa and Y. Toba (1983): Heat balance of the surface layer of the sea at Ocean Weather Station T. J. Oceanogr. Soc. Japan,39, 192–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Otobe, H., K. Taira and T. Asai (1989): Observation of Ocean mixed layer with a moored buoy on an abyssal plain in Shikoku Basin -OMLET '88-. OMLET Newsletter (English Ed.) No. 2, 2–8.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geophysics, Faculty of Science, Tohoku University, 980, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan

    Y. Toba & K. Hanawa

  2. Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies, Faculty of Science, Tohoku University, 980, Aobaku, Sendai, Japan

    H. Kawamura

  3. Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, 164, Nakano-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    H. Otobe & K. Taira

Authors
  1. Y. Toba
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. H. Kawamura
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. K. Hanawa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. H. Otobe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. K. Taira
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Toba, Y., Kawamura, H., Hanawa, K. et al. Outbreak of warm water from the Kuroshio South of Japan. Journal of the Oceanographical Society of Japan 47, 297–303 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02310098

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02310098

Keywords

Search

Navigation