Surface currents around Hokkaido in the late fall of 1981 obtained from analysis of satellite images

This paper describes the characteristics of currents around Hokkaido using a current vector map compiled by chasing the displacement of sea marks on a pair of successive thermal infrared images taken from a satellite, NOAA-6. The points of some sea surface patterns showing distinctive features which can be commonly identified in both images are called Sea Marks≓. This sea mark chase method≓ has a great advantage over velocity measurements by boats or buoys, in that it gives a synoptic view of the velocity distribution over a broad sea area extending for some hundreds of miles on a short time scale of half a day.In order to investigate the current in the late fall of 1981, we used the data taken at 19:05 JST on 30 October and at 7:20 JST on 31 October. With these data taken with a 12 hr difference, the measurement accuracy of the speed of sea marks reached ±0.1 knot through geometrical correction. The velocity vectors of sea marks agreed with results of GEK measurements performed on those days, and also with the mean current pattern obtained in the past based on sea surface data.The most distinct features recognized were some cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies of the order of 100 km in diameter which dominated in the Kuril Basin of the Okhotsk Sea. They appeared clearly in the original NOAA images and their physical parameters were determined quantitatively from the vector map. These eddies were located in the region of decay of the Soya Warm Current and were rotating at a speed nearly as large as that of the current. The problems of what feeds energy to these eddies and how long they live remain to be solved in future studies.