Numerical study of the behavior of heated water discharged into the ocean

Matsuno and Nagata (1987) showed numerically that the spreading characteristics of the discharged heated water from power plants of existing scale is significantly influenced by the earth's rotation effect. Although the effect of the enhancement of the Coriolis parameter on the spreading characteristics of the formed warm water mass was discussed in order to demonstrate the rotation effect, other parameters such as the density difference between the discharged heated water and ambient water and the vertical eddy viscosity and diffusivity were fixed. In this paper, the dependence of the spreading characteristics on these parameters is examined. Then, it is shown that the overall shape of the formed warm water mass and density and velocity structure strongly depend on these parameters. Also, it is indicated that the behavior of the warm water mass under the rotation effects is too complicated to be described with a few parameters. For example, the internal radius of deformation seems to be one of the determinative parameters, and the increase of the density difference between discharged water and ambient water has a similar effect on the shape of the formed warm water mass as a decrease of the Coriolis parameter. However, a change of the two values has different effects on the detailed density structure and current structure of the warm water mass. The Prandtl number seems to determine some aspects of the veloczty field such as velocity magnitude and width of the southward flowing current zone. However, other features such as the thickness of the warm water mass are not determined by the Prandtl number.     

Intrusion of less saline shelf water into the Kuroshio subsurface layer in the East China Sea

The possible origin and cause of the less saline shelf water detected in the Kuroshio subsurface layer around the shelf edge of the East China Sea are investigated using observational results obtained in May 1998–2001 in conjunction with a dataset archived by Japan Oceanographic Data Center and a numerical model. The observations show that subsurface intrusions of less saline water are always detected in May in layers above 24.5σθ isopycnal surface, and that salinity inversions (i.e., areas in which the less saline water lies beneath the saline water) are detected around the trough of the Kuroshio frontal eddy (or wave). Analyses of the archived dataset reveal that the isopycnal surface of 24.5σθ is the deepest layer of the Kuroshio pycnocline outcropping to the sea surface on the shallow shelf in early spring. Outcropping isopycnals above 24.5σθ encounter a less saline water plume originating from the Changjiang, especially in the western East China Sea. Thereafter, the less saline water moves along isopycnal layers and reaches the Kuroshio front around the shelf edge. Numerical models demonstrate that, when the frontal wave captures the less saline water, the shelf water takes the form of a salinity inversion in the trough because isohalines in the frontal wave have a phase lag between the upper and lower layers in consequence of the baroclinic instability.     

Complex organic molecules in an early stage of protostellar evolution

We have detected the rotational lines of HCOOCH₃ toward a Class 0 low-mass protostar, NGC1333 IRAS4B, which is reported to be extremely young according to the dynamical age of the molecular outflow (a few 100 yr). This suggests that the complex organic molecules appear from the very early stage of protostellar evolution. On the other hand, the complex organic molecules are not detected in a more evolved protostar, L1527. We have also found a similar trend in a massive star forming region, NGC2264. The HCOOCH₃ emission is almost absent toward IRS1, whereas it is concentrated near MMS3, which is younger than IRS1. In addition, the HCOOCH₃ intensity peak is slightly shifted from the dust emission peak, as is seen in the Orion KL Compact Ridge, giving an important clue to solve its origin.     

Equivalent forcing depth in tropical oceans

The forcing efficiency for the first and the second baroclinic modes by the wind stress in tropical oceans has been discussed by calculating equivalent forcing depth from annual mean, seasonal, and pentadal density profiles of the observational data. In the annual mean field, the first mode is forced preferentially in the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, whereas the second mode is more strongly excited in the Atlantic and the eastern Pacific. This difference is mostly due to the pycnocline depth; the second mode is more dominantly forced where the pycnocline depth is shallower. We also revealed large seasonal variations of the second mode's equivalent forcing depth in the western Indian Ocean. The first mode is more dominantly forced during boreal spring and fall in the western Indian Ocean, while the second mode becomes more dominantly forced during boreal summer and winter. Those are due to seasonal variations of both the zonal wind and the pycnocline depth. Moreover, we show that the excitation of the second mode in the western Pacific increases after the late 1970s, which is associated with the decreasing trend of the zonal pycnocline gradient. Revealing the variation of the equivalent forcing depth will be useful for understanding the oceanic response to winds in tropical oceans and the improvement in the predictability of air-sea coupled climate variability in the tropics.