Variability of northeastward current southeast of northern Ryukyu Islands

To better understand the mechanism underlying the variation of the Kuroshio south of central Japan, we have examined the variability of current structure in its upstream region, southeast of Amami-Ohshima Island in the northern Ryukyu Islands. By combined use of ship-mounted Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) and the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite altimeter data on Path 214, the sea surface absolute geostrophic currents were estimated every ten days from January 1998 to July 2002. The 4.5-year mean surface current was found to flow northeastward north of 26.8degreesN with a maximum speed of 14 cm s(-1) over the shelf slope at 3000 m depth. The moored current-meter observations at three or four mooring stations from Dec. 1998 to Oct. 2002 suggested the existence of a northeastward undercurrent with a maximum core velocity of 23 cm s(-1) at 600 m depth over the shelf slope at 1600 m depth. The mean volume transport in the top 1500 m between 27.9degreesN and 26.7degreesN is estimated to be 16 X 10(6) m(3)s(-1) northeastward, including the subsurface core current related component of 4 x 10(6) m(3)s(-1).