Dynamics of elastically moored floating objects

The two-dimensional problem of wave transformation by, and motions of, moored floating objects is solved numerically as a boundary value problem by direct use of Green's identity formula for a potential function. The cross-sectional shape of the floating object, the bottom configuration and the mooring arrangements may be all arbitrary. For a given incident wave, the three modes of body motion, the wave system and mooring forces are all solved at the same time. A laboratory experiment is conducted to verify the theory. Generally good agreements between the theory and experiments are obtained as long as the viscous damping due to flow separation is small. A numerical experiment indicates that a conventional sluck mooring is to worsen the wave attenuation by a floating breakwater and that a properly arranged elastic mooring can considerably improve the wave attenuation by a floating breakwater.     

Water exchange between adjacent vortices under an additional oscillatory flow

It is shown that the coupling effect of the steady vortices and the Eulerian oscillatory flow yields the 8-shaped Lagrangean motion through which adjacent vortices intercommunicates, inducing water exchange between them. The water exchange coefficient is fairly large. This coupling effect is considered to play an important role in the water exchange across the narrow strait which is accompanied with a strong tidal current and a pair of tidal residual circulations.     

Criterion for stability of phytoplankton patchiness using a Liapunov method

A criterion for the stability of plankton patchiness is developed using a Liapunov function. Plankton growth, advection and diffusion in a closed area are considered. A critical length scale for the stability does not exist but a more common criterion which contains the growth rateα, diffusion coefficientA _l and arbitrary function of growthf can be introduced in an integral form.     

Distribution of Overturn Induced by Internal Tides and Thorpe Scale in Uchiura Bay

The vertical mixing process induced by internal tides was investigated by repeated conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) measurements and bottom-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) in Uchiura Bay from July 24 to 25, 2001. Internal tides were observed with a wave height of 40 m and a horizontal current of 0.3 ms⁻¹. Density inversions were found in the CTD data, and the method of Galbraith and Kelley (1996) was applied to the data to identify overturns and to calculate Thorpe scale. Most of the overturns distributed in the region of low Richardson number, so that they were considered to be caused by shear instability associated with the internal tides. Thorpe scale was calculated to be 0.48 m. From the Thorpe scale, the vertical eddy diffusivity due to internal tides in Uchiura Bay was estimated as K _ρ ∼ 10⁻⁴ m²s⁻¹. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Air-Sea Interactions under the Existence of Opposing Swell

Data of a comprehensive laboratory study on the coexistent system of wind waves and opposing swell (Mitsuyasu and Yoshida, 1989) have been reanalyzed to clarify the air-sea interaction phenomena under the coexistence of wind waves and swell. It is shown that the magnitude of the decay rate of swell due to an opposing wind is almost the same as that of the growth rate of swell caused by a following wind, as measured by Mitsuyasu and Honda (1982). The decay rate is much smaller than that obtained recently by Peirson et al. (2003), but the reason for the disagreement is not clear at present. The effect of an opposing swell on wind waves is very different from that of a following swell; wind waves are intensified by an opposing swell while they are attenuated by a following one. The phenomenon contradicts the model of Phillips and Banner (1974), but the reason for this is not clear at this time. The high-frequency spectrum of wind waves shows a small increase of the spectral density. Wind shear stress increases a little due to the effect of opposing swell. The intensification of wind waves by opposing swell and the small increase of the spectral density in a high-frequency region can be attributed to the increase of wind shear stress. Such organized phenomena lead to the conclusion that the hypothesis of local equilibrium for pure wind waves (Toba, 1972) can also be satisfied for wind waves that coexist with opposing swell. The recent finding of Hanson and Phillips (1999) can be explained by this mechanism.     

Seasonal and mesoscale variation in the surface temperature and salinity at the coastal and shelf region off Shikoku,Japan

A three-year-long time series of water temperature and salinity observed on a ferryboat in the shelf region off Shikoku Japan was analyzed, focusing on the phenomena with a time scale of more than one month. We found two remarkable fronts in the seasonal variations. One is the well-known Kii Channel Front. This front remains as a haline front in summer while a thermohaline front in winter. The other, which is formed near Cape Ashizuri-misaki, is newly found. Density gradient across the front in winter is in the opposite direction to that in summer. Next, focusing on phenomena with a shorter time scale, we found the simultaneous variation in water temperature over the observational region, the time scale of which is about three months. It has a good coherence with the variation in air temperature observed at the coast, which implies that this variation has something to do with a phenomenon including the atmospheric system. Warm water intrusion from the Kuroshio is also correlated with this variation. Short-period variations such as the eastward progression of warm water mass tend to be active when the simultaneous variation in water temperature is in the warming phase, i.e., water temperature is increasing.     

Three-body problem

In the first part of this paper [Marchal, Yoshida, Sun Yi-Sui 1985] we have analyzed three-body systems satisfying the condition rkR where k is a suitable constant, r the mutual distance of the two masses of the binary and R the distance between the center of mass of the binary and the third mass.That condition rkR puts limits on the acceleration of the third mass and these limits allow us to determine the corresponding escape velocities.In this second part we look for initial conditions under which the inequality rkR will remain forever satisfied and we develop the corresponding tests of escape and their applications.This leads to a major improvement of the knowledge of the nature of three-body motions especially in the vicinity of triple close approaches.The region of bounded motions is much smaller than was generally expected and numerical computations of particular solutions show that we approach very near to the true limit.     

Characterization of water quality variation in the Mekong River at Vientiane by frequent observations

To better understand the variation of water quality in the Mekong River, sampling and measurement were scheduled twice a week for about 3 years at Vientiane, followed by basic statistical analysis of the observed data. The frequent measurement revealed detailed characteristics of the water quality variation, which had not been detected by monthly observation in the previous studies. The variation in total ionic content was considered to be governed by dilution of the amount of water. Increases in turbidity could be attributed to physical effects including surface soil erosion and bed material resuspension at the time of discharge increase. Nitrogen concentrations were stably low during the low flow period and abruptly increased in May. After the annual maximum in late May, the nitrate concentration steadily decreased regardless of the remarkable rise in the discharge from mid‐July, whereas the ammonium concentration remained at a similar level until October. It was considered that the first small discernable runoff after the long dry season flushed the accumulated nitrogen in the surface soil and mobilized the nitrogen in the riverbed. The variation in phosphorus concentrations was different from that in nitrogen concentrations. During the high flow period, continual dilutions at discharge peaks and occasional large additions of phosphorus by surface runoff were suggested. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The continuous limit of the multiple lens effect and the optical scalar equation

We study the continuous limit of the multiple gravitational lensing theory based on the thin lens approximation. We define a new, light-path dependent angular diameter distance     and show that it satisfies the optical scalar equation. The distance provides relations between quantities used in gravitational lensing theory (the convergence, the shear and the twist terms) and those used in scalar optics theory (the rates of expansion, shear and rotation).