A study on generation mechanism of a shallow sea front and its variabilities—lecture by the member awarded the Okada Prize of the Oceanographical Society of Japan for 1991—

The author reviews his study on generation mechanism of a shallow sea front and its variabilities awarded the Okada Prize of the Oceanographical Society of Japan for 1991. A new physical model is proposed for frontogenesis (nonhydrostatic model) in a shallow sea such as the Kii Channel during winter. This model retains the vertical acceleration term in momentum equation to simulate properly phenomena of a large aspect-ratio in the frontal region, such as gravitational convection induced by surface cooling. Numerical experiments are carried out to examine the validity of the model by using vertically two-dimensional model basin. Gravitational convection induced in the frontal region strengthens the horizontal convergence to form a remarkable front comparable to the observed one and that this effect of convection surpasses that of a tenfold cooling rate in a usual model adopting the hydrostatic approximation. It is also found that sharpness of front largely depends on horizontal eddy viscosity (diffusivity). Water exchange process caused by fluctuations of front is examined by tracking numerous labeled particles. Gravitational convection also plays an important role in this process by producing a large Lagrangian drift in the frontal region.     

Subsurface Water Masses in the Central North Pacific Transition Region: The Repeat Section along the 18° Meridian

A repeat hydrographic section has been maintained over two decades along the 180° meridian across the subarctic-subtropical transition region. The section is naturally divided into at least three distinct zones. In the Subarctic Zone north of 46°N, the permanent halocline dominates the density stratification, supporting a subsurface temperature minimum (STM). The Subarctic Frontal Zone (SFZ) between 42°–46°N is the region where the subarctic halocline outcrops. To the south is the Subtropical Zone, where the permanent thermocline dominates the density stratification, containing a pycnostad of North Pacific Central Mode Water (CMW). The STM water colder than 4°C in the Subarctic Zone is originated in the winter mixed layer of the Bering Sea. The temporal variation of its core temperature lags 12–16 months behind the variations of both the winter sea surface temperature (SST) and the summer STM temperature in the Bering Sea, suggesting that the thermal anomalies imposed on the STM water by wintertime air-sea interaction in the Bering Sea spread over the western subarctic gyre, reaching the 180° meridian within a year or so. The CMW in this section originates in the winter mixed layer near the northern edge of the Subtropical Zone between 160°E and 180°. The CMW properties changed abruptly from 1988 to 1989; its temperature and salinity increased and its potential density decreased. It is argued that these changes were caused by the climate regime shift in 1988/1989 characterized by weakening of the Aleutian Low and the westerlies and increase in the SST in the subarctic-subtropical transition region. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Tokyo PMC catalog 85

The catalog of positions of 1007 stars (792 FK4 and FK4S stars, 57 OB stars, 49 NPZT stars, and 109 SAO stars) is presented. They were observed during the period from December 1984 to September 1985 with the Tokyo Photoelectric Meridian Circle (Tokyo PMC). The positions in the catalog are referred to the equinox and equator of J2000, and are based on the FK4 system. The internal errors of a single observation were estimated to be ( cos, )=(0.16, 0.19), whereas the mean internal errors of the catalog positions were (0.08, 0.08) for FK4 stars and (0.09, 0.11) for FK4S stars. A comparison of the positions of the FK4 stars in the present catalog with those of the FK4 catalog shows significant differences cos and in some declination zones. Some of those differences are commonly found in other recent catalogs. Thus they may be considered to be real systematic errors in the FK4 system. Neither significant magnitude nor color equations exist in the Tokyo PMC 85 catalog.     

Wide-Field Camera for Gravitational Microlensing Survey: MOA-cam2

We have constructed a large, mosaic CCD camera called MOA-cam2 which has 4096 × 6144-pixelsto search for gravitational microlensing events. MOA-cam2 has three4096 × 2048-pixel SITe CCD chips, which have a very high quantum efficiency (nearly 80% in the wave region 500 to 800 nm),and three buttable sides. We have placed the threechips side by side with 100 m dead space. MOA-cam2 has been installed on the 61 cm Boller and Chivens telescope of the MOA collaboration at the Mt. John University Observatory (MJUO) in NewZealand since July 1998. The field coverage is 0.92° × 1.38° per exposure. The technical details of MOA-cam2 and the first images obtained with the Boller and Chivens telescope are presented. MOA-cam2 introduces a second phase of research on gravitational microlensing by the MOA collaboration.     

Zircon U–Pb ages of granitic and mafic dikes associated with granitoids and metamorphic rocks of the Ryoke Belt in the eastern Kii Peninsula,southwest Japan

Zircon U–Pb dates for felsic and intermediate to mafic dikes intruding into the Ryoke granitoids and metamorphic rocks at selected outcrops in the Takamiyama area of the eastern Kii Peninsula, southwest Japan, were determined along with their geology and petrography to reveal the history of Cretaceous magmatism. At each outcrop, the felsic and intermediate to mafic dikes exhibit specific structures that are indicative of magma intermingling and have coeval intrusion ages of ca. 81–77 Ma. Our zircon U–Pb data complement previously published data, suggesting that the mafic magmatism continued intermittently from 83 to 76 Ma in the Takamiyama area and that magmatism migrated eastward within the Ryoke Belt. A comparison of intrusion ages between a dike and a host Ryoke granitoid at one outcrop indicates that the host rock experienced ductile deformation at ~88 to ~83 Ma. Judging from the small number of zircons and the concordant date distributions, we didn't recognize the evidence suggesting the partial melting of the host rocks, as Nakajima et al. (Journal of the Geological Society of Japan, 2021, 127, 69–78) reported.