Modified View of Energy Budget Diagram and its Application to the Kuroshio extension region

The non-locality of eddy-mean flow interactions, which appears explicitly in the modified Lorentz diagram as a form of the interaction energy, and its link to other estimation methods are revisited, and a new formulation for the potential enstrophy is proposed. The application of these methods to the Kuroshio extension region suggests that the combined use of energy analysis with other methods, including the potential enstrophy diagram, provides more comprehensive understandings for the eddy-mean flow interactions in the limited region. It is shown that the interaction energy is transported from the nearshore and upstream regions to the downstream region in the form of the interaction energy flux, causing acceleration of the Kuroshio extension jet in the downstream region. The potential enstrophy diagram indicates that the eddy field decelerates (accelerates) the jet in the nearshore (downstream) region, which is a consistent result with the energy analysis. It turns out that the interaction potential enstrophy flux is radiated from a region of the eddy kinetic energy maximum towards the upstream region, which is the opposite direction from the interaction energy flux. The interaction potential enstrophy flux originated from this eddy kinetic energy maximum region also convergences near the center of the northern recirculation gyre of the Kuroshio extension region and tends to stabilize the structures of the recirculation gyre. Together with the energy analysis that indicates the eddy field accelerates the northeastern part of the recirculation gyre through the local interactions, the present analyses support the arguments on the eddy-driven northern recirculation gyre.

Mean Conditions and Seasonality of the West Greenland Boundary Current System near Cape Farewell

The structure, transport, and seasonal variability of the West Greenland boundary current system near Cape Farewell are investigated using a high-resolution mooring array deployed from 2014 to 2018. The boundary current system is comprised of three components: the West Greenland Coastal Current, which advects cold and fresh Upper Polar Water (UPW); the West Greenland Current, which transports warm and salty Irminger Water (IW) along the upper slope and UPW at the surface; and the Deep Western Boundary Current, which advects dense overflow waters. Labrador Sea Water (LSW) is prevalent at the seaward side of the array within an offshore recirculation gyre and at the base of the West Greenland Current. The 4-yr mean transport of the full boundary current system is 31.1 ± 7.4 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1), with no clear seasonal signal. However, the individual water mass components exhibit seasonal cycles in hydrographic properties and transport. LSW penetrates the boundary current locally, through entrainment/mixing from the adjacent recirculation gyre, and also enters the current upstream in the Irminger Sea. IW is modified through air–sea interaction during winter along the length of its trajectory around the Irminger Sea, which converts some of the water to LSW. This, together with the seasonal increase in LSW entering the current, results in an anticorrelation in transport between these two water masses. The seasonality in UPW transport can be explained by remote wind forcing and subsequent adjustment via coastal trapped waves. Our results provide the first quantitatively robust observational description of the boundary current in the eastern Labrador Sea.

The Interaction of Recirculation Gyres and a Deep Boundary Current

Motivated by the proximity of the Northern Recirculation Gyre and the deep western boundary current in the North Atlantic, an idealized model is used to investigate how recirculation gyres and a deep flow along a topographic slope interact. In this two-layer quasigeostrophic model, an unstable jet imposed in the upper layer generates barotropic recirculation gyres. These are maintained by an eddy-mean balance of potential vorticity (PV) in steady state. The authors show that the topographic slope can constrain the northern recirculation gyre meridionally and that the gyre’s adjustment to the slope leads to increased eddy PV fluxes at the base of the slope. When a deep current is present along the topographic slope in the lower layer, these eddy PV fluxes stir the deep current and recirculation gyre waters. Increased proximity to the slope dampens the eddy growth rate within the unstable jet, altering the geometry of recirculation gyre forcing and leading to a decrease in overall eddy PV fluxes. These mechanisms may shape the circulation in the western North Atlantic, with potential feedbacks on the climate system.

Warming of the Global Ocean: Spatial Structure and Water-Mass Trends

This study investigates the multidecadal warming and interannual-to-decadal heat content changes in the upper ocean (0–700 m), focusing on vertical and horizontal patterns of variability. These results support a nearly monotonic warming over much of the World Ocean, with a shift toward Southern Hemisphere warming during the well-observed past decade. This is based on objectively analyzed gridded observational datasets and on a modeled state estimate. Besides the surface warming, a warming climate also has a subsurface effect manifesting as a strong deepening of the midthermocline isopycnals, which can be diagnosed directly from hydrographic data. This deepening appears to be a result of heat entering via subduction and spreading laterally from the high-latitude ventilation regions of subtropical mode waters. The basin-average multidecadal warming mainly expands the subtropical mode water volume, with weak changes in the temperature–salinity (θ–S) relationship (known as “spice” variability). However, the spice contribution to the heat content can be locally large, for example in Southern Hemisphere. Multidecadal isopycnal sinking has been strongest over the southern basins and weaker elsewhere with the exception of the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Current/subtropical recirculation gyre. At interannual to decadal time scales, wind-driven sinking and shoaling of density surfaces still dominate ocean heat content changes, while the contribution from temperature changes along density surfaces tends to decrease as time scales shorten.

The Instabilities and Multiscale Energetics Underlying the Mean–Interannual–Eddy Interactions in the Kuroshio Extension Region

Using a recently developed energetics diagnostic methodology, namely, the localized multiscale energy and vorticity analysis (MS-EVA), this study investigates the intricate nonlinear mutual interactions among the decadally modulating mean flow, the interannual fluctuations, and the transient eddies in the Kuroshio Extension region. It is found that the mean kinetic energy maximizes immediately east of the Izu–Ogasawara Ridge, while the transient eddy kinetic energy does not peak until 400 km away downstream. The interannual variabilities, which are dominated by a jet-trapped Rossby wave mode, provide an energy reservoir comparable to the other counterparts. In the upstream, strong localized barotropic and baroclinic transfers from the mean flow to the eddies are observed, whereas those from the interannual variabilities are not significant. Besides fueling the eddies, the unstable mean jet also releases energy to the interannual-scale processes. Between 144° and 154°E, both transfers from the mean flow and the interannual variabilities are important for the eddy development. Farther downstream, eddies are found to drive the mean flow on both the kinetic energy (KE) and available potential energy (APE) maps. They also provide KE to the interannual variabilities but obtain APE from the latter. The gained eddy APE is then converted to eddy KE through buoyancy conversion. Upscale energy transfers are observed in the northern and southern recirculation gyre (RG) regions. In these regions, the interannual–eddy interaction exhibits different scenarios: the eddies lose KE to the interannual processes in the northern RG region, while gaining KE in the southern RG region.

Isopycnal Eddy Diffusivities and Critical Layers in the Kuroshio Extension from an Eddying Ocean Model

High spatial resolution isopycnal diffusivities are estimated in the Kuroshio Extension (KE) region (28°–40°N, 120°–190°E) from a global ° Parallel Ocean Program (POP) simulation. The numerical float tracks are binned using a clustering approach. The number of tracks in each bin is thus roughly the same leading to diffusivity estimates that converge better than those in bins defined by a regular geographic grid. Cross-stream diffusivities are elevated in the southern recirculation gyre region, near topographic obstacles and downstream in the KE jet, where the flow has weakened. Along-stream diffusivities, which are much larger than cross-stream diffusivities, correlate well with the magnitudes of eddy velocity. The KE jet suppresses cross-stream mixing only in some longitude ranges. This study estimates the critical layer depth both from linear local baroclinic instability analysis and from eddy phase speeds in the POP model using the Radon transform. The latter is a better predictor of large mixing length in the cross-stream direction. Critical layer theory is most applicable in the intense jet regions away from topography.

Variations of the North Pacific Subtropical Mode Water from Direct Observations

Mooring measurements from the Kuroshio Extension System Study (June 2004–June 2006) and from the ongoing Kuroshio Extension Observatory (June 2004–present) are combined with float measurements of the Argo network to study the variability of the North Pacific Subtropical Mode Water (STMW) across the entire gyre, on time scales from days, to seasons, to a decade. The top of the STMW follows a seasonal cycle, although observations reveal that it primarily varies in discrete steps associated with episodic wind events. The variations of the STMW bottom depth are tightly related to the sea surface height (SSH), reflecting mesoscale eddies and large-scale variations of the Kuroshio Extension and recirculation gyre systems. Using the observed relationship between SSH and STMW, gridded SSH products and in situ estimates from floats are used to construct weekly maps of STMW thickness, providing nonbiased estimates of STMW total volume, annual formation and erosion volumes, and seasonal and interannual variability for the past decade. Year-to-year variations are detected, particularly a significant decrease of STMW volume in 2007–10 primarily attributable to a smaller volume formed. Variability of the heat content in the mode water region is dominated by the seasonal cycle and mesoscale eddies; there is only a weak link to STMW on interannual time scales, and no long-term trends in heat content and STMW thickness between 2002 and 2011 are detected. Weak lagged correlations among air–sea fluxes, oceanic heat content, and STMW thickness are found when averaged over the northwestern Pacific recirculation gyre region.