4.7 Article

Mesoscale Eddies in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean: Three-Dimensional Eddy Structures and Heat/Salt Transports

Journal

JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-OCEANS
Volume 122, Issue 12, Pages 9795-9813

Publisher

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2017JC013303

Keywords

mesoscale eddies; Kuroshio Extension; heat transport; fresh water transport; three-dimensional eddy structures

Categories

Funding

  1. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
  2. Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) [201218007010025]
  3. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft as part of the Sonderforschungsbereich 754 Climate - Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Oceans,'' - National Science Foundation for Young Scientists of China [41406113]
  4. CNES
  5. NASA
  6. Directorate For Geosciences
  7. Div Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences [1462127] Funding Source: National Science Foundation

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The region encompassing the Kuroshio Extension (KE) in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean (25 degrees N-45 degrees N and 130 degrees E-180 degrees E) is one of the most eddy-energetic regions of the global ocean. The three-dimensional structures and transports of mesoscale eddies in this region are comprehensively investigated by combined use of satellite data and Argo profiles. With the allocation of Argo profiles inside detected eddies, the spatial variations of structures of eddy temperature and salinity anomalies are analyzed. The results show that eddies predominantly have subsurface (near-surface) intensified temperature and salinity anomalies south (north) of the KE jet, which is related to different background stratifications between these regions. A new method based on eddy trajectories and the inferred three-dimensional eddy structures is proposed to estimate heat and salt transports by eddy movements in a Lagrangian framework. Spatial distributions of eddy transports are presented over the vicinity of the KE for the first time. The magnitude of eddy-induced meridional heat (freshwater volume) transport is on the order of 0.01 PW (10(3) m(3)/s). The eddy heat transport divergence results in an oceanic heat loss south and heat gain north of the KE, thereby reinforcing and counteracting the oceanic heat loss from air-sea fluxes south and north of the KE jet, respectively. It also suggests a poleward heat transport across the KE jet due to eddy propagation.

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