Rapid Variability in the Japan/East Sea. Basin Oscillations, Internal Tides, and Near-Inertial Oscillations
Abstract
Many processes contribute to the variations of currents, sea surface height (SSH), and thermocline depth in marginal seas. Energetic examples range broadly over time scales from slow mesoscale and interannual variations to rapid basin oscillations, internal tides, and near-inertial oscillations. Our measurement array in the Japan/East Sea (JES) offered a special opportunity to study these processes simultaneously, revealing important interconnections among them. The PIES (pressure- guage-equipped inverted echo sounder) experiment in the Ulleung Basin of the southwestern JES was originally designed to investigate the dynamics of meandering currents and eddies in the upper and deep ocean. For those purposes, we low-pass filtered the measurements to examine mesoscale variability. The companion papers by Watt et al.(this issue) and Mitchell et al. (2OO5a) describe the mesoscale circulation patterns, including evolution and propagation of warm and cold eddies. The acoustic-echo-time records also included energetic short period signals. which dominated the bottom pressure record. Within the JES the barotropic (or surface) tidal amplitudes are so small (< 10cm, compared to I m typically in mid-ocean) that these energetic short-period signals stood out and demanded our attention. We present here an overview of three aspects of short-period variability (less than about 10 days) observed in the JES, even though short-period phenomena were originally outside our main objective.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA470711
Entities
People
- D. R. Watts
- Jae-Hun Park
- Jeffrey W. Book
- Karen L. Tracey
- Mark Wimbush
- Youngsheng Xu
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory