• Title/Summary/Keyword: Wind stress curl

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Effects of Wind Stress Curl, Topography, and Stratification on the Basin-scale Circulations in a Stratified Lake (바람의 회전응력, 지형, 그리고 성층화가 성층 호수의 물 순환에 미치는 영향)

  • Chung, Se-Woong;Schladow, S.G.
    • Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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    • 2015.05a
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    • pp.53-53
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    • 2015
  • Basin-scale motions in a stratified lake rely on interactions of spatially and temporally varying wind force, bathymetry, density variation, and earth's rotation. These motions provide a major driving force for vertical and horizontal mixing of inorganic and organic materials, dissolved oxygen, storm water and floating debris in stratified lakes. In Lake Tahoe, located between California and Nevada, USA, basin-scale circulations are obviously important because they are directly associated with the fate of the suspended particulate materials that degrade the clarity of the lake. A three-dimensional hydrodynamic model, ELCOM, was applied to Lake Tahoe to investigate the underlying mechanisms that determine the characteristics of basin-scale circulations. Numerical experiments were designed to examine the relative effects of various mechanisms responsible for the horizontal circulations for two different seasons, summer and winter. The unique double gyre, a cyclonic northern gyre and an anti-cyclonic southern gyre, occurred during the winter cooling season when wind stress curl, stratification, and Coriolis effect were all incorporated. The horizontal structure of the upwelling and downwelling formed due to basin-scale internal waves found to be closely related to the rotating direction of each gyre. In the summer, the spatially varying wind field and the Coriolis effect caused a dominant anti-cyclonic gyre to develop in the center of the lake. In the winter, a significant wind event excited internal waves, and a persistent (2 week long) cyclonic gyre formed near the upwelling zone. Mechanism of the persistent cyclonic gyre is explained as a geostrophic circulation ensued by balancing of the baroclinc pressure gradient (or baroclinic instability) and Coriolis effect. Topographic effect, examined by simulating a flat bathymetry with constant depth of 300m, was found to be significant during the winter cooling season but not as significant as the wind curl and baroclinic effects.

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TIME SERIES ANALYSIS USING GRIDDED WIND-STRESS PRODUCT DERIVED FROM SATELLITE SCATTEROMETER DATA

  • KUTSUWADA KUNIO;MORIMOTO NAOKI
    • Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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    • 2005.10a
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    • pp.52-53
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    • 2005
  • Time series of gridded surface wind and wind-stress vectors over the world ocean have been constructed by satellite scatterometer data. The products are derived from the ERS-l,2 covering 9 years during 1992-2000 and the Sea Winds on board QuikSCAT (Qscat) which has been operating up to the present since June 1999, so they allows us to analyze variabilities with various time scales. In this study, we focus on interannual variability of the wind stress in the mid- and high-latitude region of North Pacific. These are compared with those by numerical weather prediction(NWP) ones (NCEP Reanalysis). We also examine variability in the wind-stress curl field that is an important factor for ocean dynamics and focus its time and spatial characters in the northwestern Pacific around Japan. It is found that the vorticity field in the lower atmosphere tends to increase gradually with time, suggesting the enhancement of the North Pacific subtropical gyre.

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Construction of Gridded Wind-stress Products over the World Ocean by Tandem Scatterometer Mission

  • Kutsuwada Kunio;Kasahara Minoru;Morimoto Naoki
    • Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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    • 2004.10a
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    • pp.192-195
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    • 2004
  • Products of gridded surface wind and windstress vectors over the world ocean have been constructed by satellite scatterometer data with highly temporal and spatial resolutions. Even if the ADEOS-II/SeaWinds has supplied surface wind data only for short duration in Apr. to Oct. 2003 to us, it permits us to construct a product with higher resolution together with the Qscat/SeaWinds. In addition to our basic product with its resolution of $1^{\circ}\times1^{\circ}$ in space and daily in time, we try to construct products with $1/2^{\circ}\times1/2^{\circ}$ and semi- and quarter-daily resolution. These products are validated by inter-comparison with in-situ data (TAO and NDBC buoys), and also compared with numerical weather prediction(NWP) ones (NCEP reanalysis). Result reveals that our product has higher reliability in the study area than the NCEP's. For the open ocean regions in the middle and high latitudes where there are no in-situ data, we find that there are clear differences between them. Especially in the southern westerly region of 400-600S, the' wind-stress magnitudes by the NCEP are significantly larger than the others, suggesting that they are overestimated. We also calculate wind-stress curl field that is an important factor for ocean dynamics and focus its spatial character in the northwestern Pacific around Japan. Positive curl areas are found to cover from southwest to northeast in our focus region and almost correspond to the Kuroshio path. It is suggested that the vorticity field in the lower atmosphere is related to the upper oceanic one, and thus an aspect of air-sea interaction process.

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Spatio-temporal Distributions of the Wind Stress and the Thermocline in the East Sea of Korea

  • NA Jung-Yul;HAN Sang-Kyu
    • Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.21 no.6
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    • pp.341-350
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    • 1988
  • The wind stress distribution over the East Sea of Korea was obtained from the shipboard observations of the Fisheries Research and Development Agency along the serial observation lines. These monthly and annual mean wind stress distributions were put into the simplified interface model which describes the latitudinal variations of the upper-layer thickness as function of the curl of the wind stress. The observed variations of the surface, zonally averaged winds indeed caused the upper-layer flow convergent and divergent at the latitudes that produced a tone of thick upper-layer or a deep permanent thermocline and the shallower depth with divergence. Thus, the wind field contributes positively to maintain the almost time-independent distribution of the interface of 'saddle like' feature in north-south direction over the study area.

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Seasonal Variation of Volume Transport through the Straits of the East/Japan Sea Viewed from the Island Rule

  • Seung, Young Ho;Han, Soo-Yeon;Lim, Eun-Pyo
    • Ocean and Polar Research
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    • v.34 no.4
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    • pp.403-411
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    • 2012
  • Among others, a question that has long been unanswered is why the seasonal variation of volume transport is larger in the Soya and Korea/Tsushima Straits than in the Tsugaru Strait. An attempt is made to answer this question in terms of the island rule with friction being taken into account. The problem is idealized as a simple model. The model results indicate that volume transport through a channel is determined not only by the circulation created around the adjacent island but also by those created around the neighboring islands farther away. The latter is due to the presence of bottom friction in the channels. The volume transports through the Korea/Tsushima, Tsugaru and Soya Straits estimated from the model using observed wind data show the general pattern of observed seasonality, although they contain large errors associated with the uncertain frictional parameter employed in the model. The model indicates that the observed seasonality arises essentially from the fact that wind stress curl changes its sign, from negative in the summer to positive in winter, following a large fluctuation of zero-stress curl latitude east of Hokkaido.

Coastally Trapped Waves over a Double Shelf Topography(III) : Forced Waves and Circulations Driven by Winds in the Yellow Sea (양향성 대륙붕의 대륙붕파 (III): 강제파와 황해에서의 바람에 의한 해수순환)

  • PANG Ig-Chan
    • Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.25 no.6
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    • pp.457-473
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    • 1992
  • The first order wave equation over a double shelf has wind stresses on both coastal boundaries and wind stress curl forcing across the shelf. In the Yellow Sea, the effect of wind stress curl can be neglected as a forcing of shelf waves. The decay distance of Kelvin waves is much greater than that of continental shelf waves so that Kelvin waves are transmitted nearly intact through the northern embayment. The numerical method of characteristics has been modified to accomodate wave propagation of opposite directions. Using a little more realistic coastline, the wave model hindcast has been improved for current velocity, but hardly for sea level. It means that Kelvin waves, which mainly determine sea levels, are affected little by the change of bottom slope. For a better hindcast of sea level, input energy of Kelvin waves transmitted from the East China Sea is needed. The basic structure of downwind flows along the coasts and upwind flows along the trough supports the seasonal circulations driven by monsoon winds in the Yellow Sea.

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Ocean Surface Winds Over the Seas Around Korea Measured by the NSCAT(NASA Scatterometer) (NSCAT (NASA Scatterometer)에 의한 한국근해의 해상풍)

  • 이동규
    • Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.37-52
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    • 1998
  • The NSCAT(NASA Scatterometer) carried by the japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite(ADEOS) was the first high resolution(25 km) device for the direct wind measurement over the ocean. Even it was ceased to operate in lune of 1977 because of the power failure, it gave the first opportunity to the marine meteorologists to study the direct measured ocean wind during its 9 months of operation, especially around Korea. This study is to show monthly mean ocean wind and wind stress curl fields around Korea from January, 1997 to June, 1997. Mean ocean winds in January are predominantly northwesterly and the strongest wind(12 m/s) is found near Vladivostok. The winds in the western East Sea are strongly inf1uenced by the mountain range in Korea and these topographically influenced winds make about five times larger wind stress curl fields than previous estimates based on the weather maps. The calculation of Sverdrup transport in the East Sea shows the possibility of the directional change of the East Korean Cold Current from southward to northward direction caused by the winter wind. The downwelling area near North Korea has maximum estimated speed of 45 m in january and this wind induced downwelling makes good condition for the formation of Intermediate East Sea Water together with vigorous mixing by the strong wind.

Seasonal Variation of Surface heat budget and Wind Stress Over the Seas Around the Korean Peninsula (한반도주위 해양에서 의 해면 열수지와 응력의 계절변화)

  • 강인식;김맹기
    • 한국해양학회지
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    • v.29 no.4
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    • pp.325-337
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    • 1994
  • The distributions of heat and momentum fluxes on the surface over the oceans around the Korean Peninsula are obtained based on the surface-layer flux model of Kim and Kang (1994), and their seasonal variations are examined in the present study. the input data of the model is the oceanatmosphere data with a grid interval of 2$^{\circ}$ in longitude and latitude. The atmosphere data, which are the pressure, temperature, and specific humidity on the 1000 mb level for 3 year period of 1985∼1987, are obtained from the European center for Medium Range Forecast. The sea surface temperature (SST) is obtained from National Meteorological Center (NMC). The solar insolation and longwave radiation on the ocean surface are obtained, respectively, from the NASA satellite data and based on an emprical formula. It is shown from the net heat flux that the oceans near Korea lose heat to the atmosphere in January and October with the rates of 200∼ 400 Wm/SUP -2/ and 100 Wm/SUP -2/, respectively. But the oceans are heated by the atmosphere in April and July with about the same rate of 100 Wm/SUP -2/. The annualmean net heat flux is negative over the entire domain except the northern part of the Yellow Sea. The largest annual-mean cooling rate of about 120 Wm/SUP -2/ is appeared off the southwest of Japan. In the East Sea, the annual-mean cooling rate is 60∼90 Wm/SUP -2/ in the southern and northern parts and about 30 Wm/SUP -2/ in the middle part. The magnitude of wind stress in january is 3∼ 5 times bigger than those of the other months. As a result, the spatial pattern of annual-mean wind stress is similar to that of January. It is also shown that the annual-mean wind stress curl is negative. in the East China Sea and the South Sea,but it is positive in the northern part of the Yellow Sea.In the East sea,the stress curl is positive in the southeast and northern parts and negative in the northwestern part.

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Variations of 'Rightward Bias' with Typhoon Using an Ideal 3D Primitive Equation Numerical Model (3차원 수치모델상에서 태풍통과시 '우측쏠림현상')

  • Hong, Chul-Hoon;Masuda, Akira;Hirose, Naoki
    • Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.53 no.4
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    • pp.637-649
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    • 2020
  • An ideal 3D primitive equation model is implemented to investigate upper ocean response to typhoons, focusing on rightward bias (RWB) which means an appearance of an intensified sea surface cooling to the right side of the typhoon track. The model has 26-stratified levels and a flat bottom (1000 m), covering a rectangular domain of about 3,060 km×3,300 km with four open boundaries. The sea water is forced by an atmospheric pressure and a gradient wind of the typhoon. The model well reproduces the RWB in previous observations and theoretical analyses. For the fast moving typhoon (FMT) (-8m/sec), the model shows that in the mixed layer (ML), the RWB in the SST noticeably appears clearly illustrating the coupling between inertial motion and wind stress, but in the subsurface layer (-100m), the RWB does not emerge since a cyclonic current field (CCF) caused by wind stress curl is primarily dominant. For the slowly moving typhoon (SMT) (-3m/sec), however, the RWB does not emerge because the coupling is weakened and the CCF is rather predominant even in the ML. In the model, we conclude that the RWB noticeably emerges in the FMT but does not emerge in the SMT related to predominance of CCF.

Eddy Kinetic Energy in the East Sea Estimated from Topex/Poseidon Altimeter Measurements

  • Cho Kwangwoo;Cho Kyu-Dae
    • Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.5 no.3
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    • pp.219-228
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    • 2002
  • Based on the five-year (October 1992 through September 1997) Topex/Poseidon altimeter measurements, we describe the statistical characteristics of the eddy variability in the East Sea in terms of sea surface height anomaly, slope variability, and eddy kinetic energy (EKE). The sea surface height anomalies in the East Sea are produced with standard corrections from Topex/Poseidon measurements. In order to eliminate the high frequency noise in the sea surface height anomaly data, the alongtrack height anomaly data was filtered by about 40 km low-pass Lanczos filter based on Strub et al. (1997) and Kelly et a1. (1998). We find that there exists a distinct spatial contrast of high eddy variability in the south and low eddy energy in the north, bordering the Polar Front. In the northwestern area $(north\;of\;39^{\circ}N\;and\;west\;of\;133^{\circ}E)$ from the Polar Front where the eddies frequently appear, the EKE is also considerabel. The high kinetic energy in the southern East Sea reveals a close connection with the paths of the Tsushima Warm Current, suggesting that the high variability in the south is mainly generated by the baroclinic instability process of the Tsushima Warm Current. This finding is supported by other studies (Fu and Zlontnicki, 1989; Stammer, 1997) wh.ch have shown the strong eddy energy coupled in the major current system. The monthly variation of the EKE in both areas of high and low eddy variability shows a strong seasonality of a high eddy kinetic energy from October to February and a relatively low one from March to September. The sequential pattern of wind stress curl shows resemblance with those of monthly and seasonal EKE and the two sequences have a correlation of 0.82 and 0.67, respectively, providing an evidence that wind stress curl can be the possible forcing for the monthly and seasonal variation of the EKE in the East Sea. The seasonality of the EKE also seems to correlate with the seasonality of the Tsushima Warm Current. There also exists the large spatial and interannual variabilities in the EKE.