The mesoscale variability in the Caribbean Sea. Part II: Energy sources

The processes which drive the production and the growth of the strong mesoscale eddy field in the Caribbean Sea are examined using a general circulation model. Diagnostics of the simulations suggest that:(1) The mean currents in the Caribbean Sea are intrinsically unstable. The nature of the instability and its strength vary spatially due to strong differences of current structure among basins.(2) The greatest and most energetic eddies of the Caribbean Sea originate in the Venezuela Basin by mixed barotropic-baroclinic instability of an intense jet, formed with waters mostly from the surface return flow of the Meridional Overturning Circulation and the North Equatorial Current which converge and accelerate through the Grenada Passage. The vertical shear of this inflow is enhanced by an eastward undercurrent, which flows along the south American Coast between 100 and 250 m depth. The shallow eddies (less than 200 m depth) formed in the vicinity of the Grenada Passage get rapidly deeper (down to 1000 m depth) and stronger by their interaction with the deep interior flow of the Subtropical Gyre, which enters through passages north of St. Lucia. These main eastern Caribbean inflows merge and form the southern Caribbean Current, whose baroclinic instability is responsible for the westward growth and strengthening of these eddies from the Venezuela to the Colombia Basin.(3) Eddies of lesser strength are produced in other regions of the Caribbean Sea. Their generation and growth is also linked with instability of the local currents. First, cyclones are formed in the cyclonic shear of the northern Caribbean Current, but appear to be rapidly dissipated or absorbed by the large anticyclones coming from the southern Caribbean. Second, eddies in the Cayman Sea, which impact the Yucatan region, are locally produced and enhanced by barotropic instability of the deep Cayman Current.(4) The role of the North Brazil Current (NBC) rings is mostly to act as a finite perturbation for the instability of the mean flow. Their presence near the Lesser Antilles is ubiquitous and they appear to be linked with most of the Caribbean eddies. There are some evidences that the frequency at which they form near the Grenada Passage is influenced by the frequency at which the NBC rings impinge the Lesser Antilles. But large Caribbean eddies also form without a close influence of any ring, and comparison between simulations shows that mean eddy kinetic energy and eddy population in the Caribbean Sea are not substantially different in absence or presence of NBC rings: their presence is not a necessary condition for the generation and growth of the Caribbean eddies.     

Transport of South Atlantic water through the passages south of Guadeloupe and across 16°N, 2000–2004

CTD, vessel-mounted ADCP and LADCP measurements in the Caribbean passages south of Guadeloupe (three repeats) and along 16°N (five repeats) were carried out between December 2000 and July 2004. The CTD data were used to calculate the contribution of South Atlantic water (SAW) in the upper 1200 m between the isopycnals σ_θ=24.5 and 27.6. Northern and southern source water masses are defined and an isopycnal mixing approach is applied. The SAW fractions are then combined with the ADCP flow field to calculate the transport of SAW into the Caribbean and across 16°N. The SAW inflow into the Caribbean through the passages south of Guadeloupe ranges from 7.6 to 11.6 Sv, which is 50–75% of the total inflow. The mean (9.1±2.2 Sv) is in the range of previous estimates. Ambiguities in the northern and southern source water masses of the salinity maximum water permitted us only to calculate the contribution of SAW from the eastern source in this water mass. We estimated the additional SAW transport by the western source to be of the order of 1.9±0.7 Sv. The calculation of the SAW transport across 16°N was hampered by the presence of several anticyclonic rings from the North Brazil Current (NBC) retroflection region, some of the rings were subsurface intensified. Provided that the rings observed at 16°N are typical rings and that all rings which are annually produced in the NBC retroflection area (6.5–8.5 per year) reach 16°N, the SAW ring transport across 16°N is calculated to 5.3±0.7 Sv. From the 5 repeats at 16°N, only two showed a net northward flow, suggesting that the mean northward SAW transport is dominated by ring advection. The joint SAW transports of the Caribbean inflow (9.1 Sv) and the flow across 16°N (5.3 Sv) sum up to 14.4 Sv. The transport increases to 16.3 Sv if the additional SAW transport from the western source of SMW (1.9±0.7 Sv) is included. These transport estimates and the following implications depend strongly on the assumption that the surface water in the Caribbean inflow is of South Atlantic origin. The transport estimates are, however, in the range of the inverse model calculations for the net cross-hemispheric flow. About 30–40% of this transport is intermediate water from the South Atlantic, presumably supporting studies which found the contributions of intermediate and upper warm water to be of a comparable magnitude. For the upper warm water (σ_θ<27.1), the Caribbean inflow seems to be the major path (7.9±1.6 Sv), the ring induced transport across 16°N is about 30% of that value. The intermediate water transport across 16°N was calculated to be 2.3–3.6 Sv, the inflow into the Caribbean is slightly smaller (1.5–2.4 Sv).     

Sources and transport of suspended particulates in the Caribbean Sea

Gravimetric and light-scattering studies of total suspended matter reveal that the bulk of this material is introduced into the Caribbean through the passages of the Lesser Antilles, most likely the result of discharge of the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. A broad suspended-matter high extends northward from the South American coast, apparently related to northward advection at the confluence of the westward-moving Caribbean Current and an easterly coastal countercurrent off Colombia. Particulate matter distribution may be accounted for by transport from the northern and eastern sills, with resuspension in the deep basins playing a minor role. Localized concentrations appear to be entering through the Greater Antillean sills, and then are carried westward by the prevailing currents.     

Modulation of the inflow into the Caribbean Sea by North Brazil Current rings

A two-year long record from a triangular mooring array between the Lesser Antilles islands Tobago, Barbados, and St. Lucia is used to investigate the inflow into the Caribbean Sea, the amount of South Atlantic Water (SAW) carried with the inflow, and the role of North Brazil Current (NBC) rings in the observed variability. The data set consists of time series from temperature/conductivity recorders and current meters in the moorings, bottom-mounted inverted echo sounders at the Tobago and St. Lucia mooring positions, and supplementary shipboard measurements. The acoustic travel time measurements of the inverted echo sounders and the conductivity/temperature time series are used for continuous estimation of dynamic height profiles and geostrophic currents between the surface and 1000 dbar as well as the amount of SAW found at the mooring positions.The observations show a domination of intraseasonal variability between 0 and 15 Sv, superimposed on the long-term fluctuations. With time scales of one to three months, these represent the signature of the NBC rings. The baroclinic transport time series shows nine periods of increased variability, indicative of the rings interacting with the Lesser Antilles island arc; with the exception of one, these periods were associated with corresponding sea surface height anomalies. No marked seasonality was observed in the transport variability or the ring frequency.The arrival of individual rings leads to a weakening of the inflow into the Caribbean. Nevertheless, the rings carry large amounts of SAW into the area, and the immediate increase of the transport towards the end of a ring event suggests a subsequent flow of this SAW-rich water into the Caribbean. At St. Lucia, rings sometimes cause a short-term decrease of SAW content, indicative of an influx of northern hemispheric water and a blocking situation. The average transport of SAW into the Caribbean south of St. Lucia during the observations amounted to 5.5 Sv, with no significant seasonal cycle, but a small positive trend in SAW fraction as well as in transport of about 15% and 1 Sv, respectively; a corresponding trend in the baroclinic volume transport was not observed.     

Upper ocean circulation in the western tropical Atlantic in boreal fall 2000

The upper ocean large-scale circulation of the western tropical Atlantic from 11.5°S to the Caribbean in November and December 2000 is investigated from a new type of shipboard ADCP able to measure accurate velocities to 600 m depth, combined with lowered ADCP measurements. Satellite data and numerical model output complement the shipboard measurements to better describe the large-scale circulation. In November 2000 the North Brazil Undercurrent (NBUC) was strongly intensified between 11 and 5°S by inflow from the east, hence the NBUC was formed further to the north than in the mean. The NBUC was transporting 23.1 Sv northward at 5°S, slightly less than the mean of six cruises (Geophysical Research Letters (2002) 29 (7) 1840). At 35°W the North Brazil Current (NBC) transported 29.4 Sv westward, less than the mean of 13 cruises (Geophysical Research Letters (2003) 30 (7) 1349). A strong retroflection ring had just pinched off the NBC retroflection according to the satellite information. The inflow into the Caribbean south of 16.5°N originated in part of a leakage from the NBC retroflection zone and in part from the North Equatorial Current. A thermocline intensified ring with a transport of about 30 Sv was located off Guadeloupe carrying South Atlantic Central Water towards the north. Observed deviations of the November/December 2000 flow field from the November long-term mean flow field were related to an enhanced Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) associated with an increased North Equatorial Countercurrent (NECC), as well as to boundary current rings and Rossby waves with zonal wavelength of the order of 1000 km. At 44°W the presence of a Rossby wave associated with an anticyclonic circulation led to a strongly enhanced NBC of 65.0 Sv as well as to a combined NECC and Equatorial Undercurrent transport of 52.4 Sv, much stronger than during earlier cruises. While the 1/3°-FLAME model is unable to reproduce details of the vertical distribution of the observed horizontal flow at 44 °W for November 2000 as well as the horizontal distribution of some of the observed permanent current bands, a climatological simulation with the 1/12°-FLAME agrees much better with the observations and provides information on the spreading path between the sections. E.g., the interpretation that the widening in the Antarctic Intermediate Water layer of the westward flowing NBC at 44°W in November was caused by water from the Equatorial Intermediate Current was further supported by the model results.     

The Kuroshio near the Luzon Strait and circulation in the northern South China Sea during August and September 1994

Wind data from NCEP and hydrographic data obtained from August 28 to September 10, 1994 have been used to compute circulation in the northern South China Sea and near Luzon Strait using three-dimensional diagnostic models with a modified inverse method. The numerical results are as follows: the main Kuroshio is located above 400 m levels near Taiwan’s eastern coast and above 800 m levels away from it. Near Luzon Strait above 400 m levels a branch of the Kuroshio joins with a part of the northward current, which comes from an area west of Luzon’s western coast and intrudes northwestward, then it branchs into western and eastern parts near 20°30′ N. The eastern part flows northward into an area east of Taiwan, while its western part continues to intrude northwestward, flowing through an area southwest of Taiwan. Net westward intruded volume transport through longitude Section AB at 121°00′ E from 19°00′ N to 21° 43′ N is about 3.5 × 10⁶ m³s⁻¹ in a layer above 400 m levels. The anticyclonic eddies W1 and W3 exist above 700 m levels east of Dongsha Islands and below 200 m levels in the eastern part of the region, respectively. The circulation in the middle region is dominated mainly by a basin-scale cyclonic gyre, and consists of three cyclonic eddies. Strong upwelling occurs in the middle region. The joint effect of baroclinity and relief and interaction between wind stress and relief both are important for real forcing of flow across contours of fH ⁻¹ in effecting the circulation pattern.     

Short-term offshore extension of Brahmaputra-Ganges and Irrawaddy freshwater plumes to the central northern Bay of Bengal based on in situ and satellite observations

In this study, the short-term offshore extension of Brahmaputra-Ganges(BG) and Irrawaddy freshwater plumes to the central northern Bay of Bengal(BoB) was investigated based on in situ and satellite observations. In the summer and winter of 2015, two significant freshening events with periods of weeks were observed from a moored buoy at 15°N, 90°E in the BoB. Soil Moisture Active Passive(SMAP) satellite sea surface salinity compares well with the in situ data and shows that these freshening events are directly related to the short-term offshore extension of the BG and Irrawaddy freshwater, respectively. These data combined with the altimeter sea level anomaly data show that the offshore extending plumes result from freshwater modulated by eddies. During summer, the BG freshwater is modulated by a combination of three closely located eddies: a large anticyclonic eddy(ACE) off the northwestern BoB coast and two cyclonic eddies in the northern BoB. Consequently, the freshwater extends offshore from the river mouth and forms a long and narrow tongue-shaped plume extending southwestward to the central BoB. During winter, the Irrawaddy freshwater is modulated by two continuous ACEs evolved from Rossby wave propagating westward from the Irrawaddy Delta off Myanmar, forming a tongueshaped plume extending to the central BoB. Strong salinity fronts are formed along the boundaries of these tongue-shaped plumes. These findings confirm good capability of the SMAP data to investigate the short-term offshore extension of the BG and Irrawaddy freshwater. This study provides direct evidences of the pathways of the offshore extension of the BG and Irrawaddy freshwater and highlights the role of eddies in the northern BoB freshwater plume variability.     

南海的季节环流─TOPEX/POSEIDON卫星测高应用研究

应用1992～1996年的TOPEX/POSEIDON卫星高度计遥感资料,研究了冬、夏季风强盛期多年平均的南海上层环流结构。研究结果表明,南海上层流结构呈明显的季节变化,在很大程度上受该海区冬、夏交替的季风支配。冬季总环流呈气旋型,并发育有两个次海盆尺度气旋型环流;夏季总环流大致呈反气旋型、但在南海东部18°N以南海域未见明显流系发育。研究还表明,南海环流的西向强化趋势明显,无论冬、夏在中南半岛沿岸和巽他陆架外缘均存在急流,其流向冬、夏相反,是南海上层环流中最强劲的一支。鉴于该海流的动力特征与海洋动力学中定义的漂流不同,有相当大的地转成分,建议称为“南海季风急流(South China Sea MonsoonJet)”.冬季南下的季风急流在南海南部受巽他陆架阻挡折向东北,沿加里曼丹岛和巴拉望岛外海有较强东北向流发育。夏季北上的季风急流在海南岛东南分为两支:北支沿陆架北上,似为传统意义上的南海暖流;南支沿18°N向东横穿南海后折向东北;二者之间(陆架坡折附近)为弱流区。两分支在汕头外海汇合后,南海暖流流速增强。就多年平均而言,黑潮只在冬季侵入南海东北部,并在南海北部诱生一个次海盆尺度的气旋型环流,这时南海暖流只出现在汕头以东海域.夏季南海北部完全受东北向流控制,未见黑潮入侵迹象.用卫星跟踪海面漂流浮标观测进行的对比验证表明,以上遥感分析结果与海上观测一致。     

The 4-D structure of upwelling and Pearl River plume in the northern South China Sea during summer 2008 revealed by a data assimilation model

We analyze four-dimensional structures of upwelling and Pearl River plume in the northern South China Sea (NSCS) during the summer of 2008 based on data assimilation. An Ensemble Kalman Smoother scheme is employed in the Princeton Ocean Model. It is found that the Pearl River plume axis extended eastward along with the surface current and swerved offshore twice near (116°E, 22.6°N) and (117.5°E, 22.8°N) before reaching the Taiwan Strait. The vertical transect of salinity along the plume axis indicates that the Pearl River freshwater could affect salinity distribution down to a depth of 10–20 m. Anomalously warm water is found in the upper layer, which could be attributed to the intensified stratification and suppressed vertical mixing caused by the freshwater of the plume capping the upwelling west of 116°E. The varying winds from upwelling favorable to downwelling favorable could induce a low-salinity water lens at the center of the model domain. Upwelling in the NSCS initially occurred at 114.5°E, to the east of the Pearl River Estuary, intensified eastward, and reached its maximum near Shantou (116.7°E, 23.2°N). Since current-induced upwelling appeared mainly in Shantou due to the widened shelf, it is found that even if the wind-induced upwelling was shut down in Shanwei by downwelling favorable wind on July 4, the upwelling still existed in Shantou. Moreover, because the direction of large-scale current was in favor of upwelling in the NSCS that cannot be reversed by varying local winds over a short time period, the upwelling shutdown time is longer for both wind-induced and current-induced upwelling in Shantou than for mainly wind-induced upwelling in Shanwei. The steeper slope in Shanwei also shortens the upwelling shutdown time there.     

Deep-water circulation at low latitudes in the western North Pacific

Full-depth conductivity-temperature-depth-oxygen profiler (CTDO₂) data at low latitudes in the western North Pacific in winter 1999 were analyzed with water-mass analysis and geostrophic calculations. The result shows that the deep circulation carrying the Lower Circumpolar Water (LCPW) bifurcates into eastern and western branch currents after entering the Central Pacific Basin. LCPW colder than 0.98°C is carried by the eastern branch current, while warmer LCPW is carried mainly by the western branch current. The eastern branch current flows northward in the Central Pacific Basin, supplying water above 0.94°C through narrow gaps into an isolated deep valley in the Melanesian Basin, and then passes the Mid-Pacific Seamounts between 162°10′E and 170°10′E at 18°20′N, not only through the Wake Island Passage but also through the western passages. Except near bottom, dissolved oxygen of LCPW decreases greatly in the northern Central Pacific Basin, probably by mixing with the North Pacific Deep Water (NPDW). The western branch current flows northwestward over the lower Solomon Rise in the Melanesian Basin and proceeds westward between 10°40′N and 12°20′N at 150°E in the East Mariana Basin with volume transport of 4.1 Sv (1 Sv=10⁶ m³ s⁻¹). The current turns north, west of 150°E, and bifurcates around 14°N, south of the Magellan Seamounts, where dissolved oxygen decreases sharply by mixing with NPDW. Half of the current turns east, crosses 150°E at 14–15°N, and proceeds northward primarily between 152°E and 156°E at 18°20′N toward the Northwest Pacific Basin (2.1 Sv). The other half flows northward west of 150°E and passes 18°20′N just east of the Mariana Trench (2.2 Sv). It is reversed by a block of topography, proceeds southward along the Mariana Trench, then detours around the south end of the trench, and proceeds eastward along the Caroline Seamounts to the Solomon Rise, partly flowing into the West Mariana and East Caroline Basins. A deep western boundary current at 2000–3000 m depth above LCPW (10.0 Sv) closes to the coast than the deep circulation. The major part of it (8.5 Sv) turns cyclonic around the upper Solomon Rise from the Melanesian Basin and proceeds along the southern boundary of the East Caroline Basin. Nearly half of it proceeds northward in the western East Caroline Basin, joins the current from the east, then passes the northern channel, and mostly enters the West Caroline Basin (4.6 Sv), while another half enters this basin from the southern side (>3.8 Sv). The remaining western boundary current (1.5 Sv) flows over the middle and lower Solomon Rise, proceeds westward, then is divided by the Caroline Seamounts into southern (0.9 Sv) and northern (0.5 Sv) branches. The southern branch current joins that from the south in the East Caroline Basin, as noted above. The northern branch current proceeds along the Caroline Seamounts and enters the West Mariana Basin.     

Structural features and oil-and-gas bearing of the Caribbean region

The structure of the Caribbean region testifies to the extremely unstable condition of the terrestrial crust of this intercontinental and simultaneously interoceanic area. In the recent geological epoch, the Caribbean region is represented by a series of structural elements, the main of which are the Venezuelan and Colombian deep-sea suboceanic depressions, the Nicaraguan Rise, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles bordering the Caribbean Sea in the north and east. There are 63 sedimentary basins in the entire Caribbean region. However, only the Venezuelan and Colombian basins, the Miskito Basin in Nicaragua, and the northern and eastern shelves of the Antilles, Paria Bay, Barbodos-Tobago, and Grenada basins are promising in terms of oil-and-gas bearig. In the Colombian Basin, the southwestern part, located in the rift zone of the Gulf of Uraba, is the most promising. In the Venezuelan Basin, possible oil-and-gas-bearing basins showing little promise are assumed to be in the northern and eastern margins. The main potential of the eastern Caribbean region is attributed to the southern margin, at the shelf zone of which are the Tokuyo-Bonaire, Tuy-Cariaco, Margarita, Paria Bay, Barbados–Tobago, and Grenada oil-and-gas-bearing basins. The rest of the deepwater depressions of the Caribbean Sea show little promise for hydrocarbon research due to the small thickness of the deposits, their flat bedding, and probably a lack of fluid seals.     

Depth Distribution of the Subtropical Gyre in the North Pacific

Large-scale aspects of the North Pacific subtropical gyre have been investigated using a climatology of temperature and salinity (World Ocean Atlas 1998). In the central and eastern parts of the basin, the axis of the subtropical gyre, defined as the meridional maximum of dynamic height, tends to move poleward from about 25°N near the surface to about 40°N in the upper intermediate layers. In the western part of the basin, the axis is seen at about 30°N, remaining almost unchanged with depth. Striking features associated with this vertical distribution include a northward shift of the bifurcation latitude of the North Equatorial Current at increasing depth and a barotropic nature of the confluence point between the Kuroshio and Oyashio at their respective western boundaries. The former occurs at about 14°N near the surface and extends north of 20°N at depths around 800 m. The latter, situated at about 36.4°N off Japan, does not appear to have a strong signature of depth-dependence. While some of these results are already known from sporadic hydrographic observations, they have not hitherto been represented in a three-dimensional climatology. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On the seasonal variation of transport through the Tokara Strait

Results are described from a limited area barotropic model of the North Pacific with 1/3°×1/3° resolution and bounded by latitudes 10°N and 50°N and longitudes 120°E and 160°E. The model employs dynamics linearised about a state of rest and incorporates realistic bottom topography. It is driven by the seasonally varying part of the Hellerman and Rosenstein wind stress field and by inflow along the northern and eastern boundaries specified from a 1°×1° version of the model applied to the whole North Pacific. The model-calculated transport variations through the Tokara Strait are similar to those of the observed seasonal sea level differences across the Strait, although the model appears to underestimate the amplitude of the signal by a factor of at least 2. The inclusion of realistic bottom topography is shown to be crucial in determining the model response.     

North Brazil current rings viewed by TRMM Microwave Imager SST and the influence of the Amazon Plume

In the western equatorial Atlantic, 5 years of satellite Sea Surface Temperature (SST) measurements (1998–2002) from the cloud penetrating Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager reveal SST signatures of rings shedding from the North Brazil Current (NBC) as it separates from the South American coastline north of the Amazon River Delta and retroflects eastward between 5 and 10°N. By removing the spatial-mean SST from a 7° by 7° square of the nearly instantaneous measurements of each satellite pass, the 46.7 day aliasing period of the diurnal solar cycle is reduced, and seven to eight rings are observed per year with relatively warm (cold) SST anomalies of up to 1 °C in the first (second) half of the year. The sense of the SST anomalies carried by the NBC rings are determined by the contrast between the NBC SST and the regional SSTs that are influenced by the far-reaching seasonally varying Amazon River freshwater plume. Within a 1.6-year period, 12 of the SST anomalies are validated by in situ mooring array data confirming the predicted sense of the SST anomalies for each season. According to historical hydrographic data, during the first half of the year, the Amazon Plume is generally contained northwest along the coast, whereas during the second half of the year, the Amazon Plume surrounds the NBC retroflection on the west and the north, and from the surface down to 50 m, imposing a dramatic surface salinity contrast up to −4 and a surface temperature contrast up to +2 °C across the front. The surface layer characteristics of the rings shed from the NBC retroflection reveal varying influence of the Amazon Plume. Of the four rings surveyed in the NBCR experiment, Amazon Plume water is found only on the edges of three surface-intensified rings, whereas it completely covers the surface layer of the one thermocline-intensified ring. The maximum current cores of the NBC and retroflection are observed within tens-of-meters of the edges of the Amazon Plume. As the fresher and typically warmer surface waters associated with the Amazon Plume are buoyant relative to the saltier and typically colder surface waters carried by the NBC, the varying position of the Amazon Plume may seasonally influence the surface dynamics in the region.     

东海北部气旋涡区冬半年水文特征的初步分析

关于东海北部气旋涡区夏半年水文结构及其逐月变化,作者已作了比较系统的分析。本文是上述工作的继续。鉴于冬半年海水的温、盐度等要素垂直分布均匀,其结构简单,而夏半年几个突出的水文现象大多没有出现,因此,本文叙述的方式和内容同前文是不同的。 迄今,只有毛汉礼等(1964)曾对研究海区冬季的水文特征以及海水类型作过分析,但对这一海区的水文特征在冬半年的变化规律尚未见报道。历史资料表明,该海区在冬     

Monsoon response of the Somali Current and associated upwelling

The Somali Current typically develops in different phases in response to the onset of the summer monsoon. Each of these phases exists quasistationary for some time ranging from weeks to months. These periods of rather constant circulation patterns are separated by periods of rapid transition.In the early phase of the monsoon response, during May, with weak southerly winds off Somalia, a cross equatorial inertial current develops which turns offshore a few degrees north of the equator with a coastal upwelling wedge just north of the offshore flow. North of that region, an Ekman upwelling regime exists all the way up the coast. At the onset of strong winds in June, a northern anticyclonic gyre develops north of 5°N and a second cold wedge forms north of 8°–9°N, where that current turns offshore. The most drastic change of upwelling pattern occurs in the late phase of the summer monsoon, August/September, when the southern cold wedge propagates northward, indicating a break-down of the two-gyre pattern and development of a continuous boundary current from south of the equator to about 10°N. The wedge propagation during 1976–1978 is discussed, based on satellite observations (EVANS and BROWN, 1981), moored station data during 1978, 1979 and shipboard hydrographic data during 1979. A simple relation between the decrease of local monsoon winds offshore and wedge propagation cannot be determined.The southward coastal undercurrent, which is part of the Ekman upwelling regime north of 5° during the early summer monsoon, seems to turn offshore between 3° and 5°, probably due to a zonal excursion of depth contours in that area. With the spin-up of the deep-reaching northern gyre the undercurrent is extinguished during July to August but seems to get reestablished after the coalescence of the two gyres.     

Seasonal and interannual variation of North Pacific Subtropical Mode Water in 2003–2006

Temperature and salinity data from 2003 through 2006 from Argo profiling floats have been analyzed to examine the formation and circulation of the North Pacific Subtropical Mode Water (STMW) and the interannual variation of its properties over the entire distribution region. STMW is formed in late winter in the zonally-elongated recirculation gyre south of the Kuroshio and its extension, which extends north of ∼28°N, from 135°E to near the date line. The recirculation gyre consists of several anticyclonic circulations, in each of which thick STMW with a characteristic temperature is formed. After spring, the thick STMW tends to be continually trapped in the respective circulations, remaining in the formation region. From this stagnant pool of thick STMW, some portion seeps little by little into the southern region, where southwestward subsurface currents advect relatively thin STMW as far as 20°N to the south and just east of Taiwan to the west. The STMW formed in the recirculation gyre becomes colder, less saline, and denser to the east, with an abrupt change of properties across 140°E and a gradual change east of 140°E. The STMW formed east of 140°E exhibits coherent interannual variations, increasing its temperature by ∼1°C from 2003 through 2006 and also increasing its salinity by ∼0.05 from 2003 through 2005. These property changes are clearly detected in the southern region as far downstream as just east of Taiwan, with reasonable time lags.     

Nitrogen cycling in the southern North Sea: consequences for total nitrogen transport

Nitrate and ammonium uptake rates were measured during a series of cruises in the well-mixed region of the southern North Sea from February to September. Water column-integrated uptake rates ranged between 0.01 and 8.7 mmol N m⁻² d⁻¹ and 0.01 and 12.2 mmol N m⁻² d⁻¹ for nitrate and ammonium, respectively, with ammonium uptake dominating after the phytoplankton spring bloom in May. A moored buoy continuously measuring nitrate and chlorophyll a and seabed current meters were also deployed in the central southern North Sea in the region of the East Anglian plume—a permanent physical feature which transports nutrients towards continental Europe. This enabled the flux of water and hence of nutrients across the southern North Sea to be determined and an assessment of the contribution of freshwater nutrients to the flux to be made. A simple box model is developed to relate the phytoplankton uptake of nitrate and ammonium to the transport of nitrate, ammonium and particulate organic matter (POM) across the southern North Sea. This showed the importance of the plume region of the North Sea in the processing of nitrogen, with nitrate dominating total nitrogen transport prior to the spring bloom (10 340×10³ kg N inflow to the plume in March) and transport of nitrogen as ammonium, nitrate and POM in approximately equivalent amounts during summer (2560, 2960 and 2151×10³ kg N inflow to the plume, respectively, in July). The box model also demonstrates more generally the need to assess nitrogen transport as nitrate, ammonium and POM if an improved understanding of the impact of nutrient input in shelf seas is to be achieved.     

The mean flow field of the tropical Atlantic Ocean

The mean horizontal flow field of the tropical Atlantic Ocean is described between 20°N and 20°S from observations and literature results for three layers of the upper ocean, Tropical Surface Water, Central Water, and Antarctic Intermediate Water. Compared to the subtropical gyres the tropical circulation shows several zonal current and countercurrent bands of smaller meridional and vertical extent. The wind-driven Ekman layer in the upper tens of meters of the ocean masks at some places the flow structure of the Tropical Surface Water layer as is the case for the Angola Gyre in the eastern tropical South Atlantic. Although there are regions with a strong seasonal cycle of the Tropical Surface Water circulation, such as the North Equatorial Countercurrent, large regions of the tropics do not show a significant seasonal cycle. In the Central Water layer below, the eastward North and South Equatorial undercurrents appear imbedded in the westward-flowing South Equatorial Current. The Antarcic Intermediate Water layer contains several zonal current bands south of 3°N, but only weak flow exists north of 3°N. The sparse available data suggest that the Equatorial Intermediate Current as well as the Southern and Northern Intermediate Countercurrents extend zonally across the entire equatorial basin. Due to the convergence of northern and southern water masses, the western tropical Atlantic north of the equator is an important site for the mixture of water masses, but more work is needed to better understand the role of the various zonal under- and countercurrents in cross-equatorial water mass transfer.