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Spatiotemporal variations of the surface Kuroshio east of Taiwan Island derived from satellite altimetry data

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Abstract

Spatiotemporal variation of the surface Kuroshio east of Taiwan Island is investigated by quantitatively analyzing 23-year (1993–2015) sea surface Absolute Dynamic Topography data. The annual mean state of the Kuroshio is shown, with a flow width ~136 km and surface transport ~7.75×104m2/s. The corresponding standard deviations of these are 28 km and 2.14×104m2/s. Results of power spectrum analysis indicate that the primary periods of Kuroshio surface transport east of Taiwan Island are 1 and 2.8 years, respectively. Spatially, the Kuroshio surface transport southeast of Taiwan Island has greater variability than that to its northeast. That transport showed strong seasonality, with a maximum 8.8×104m2/s in summer and minimum 7.5×10 4 m 2 /s in winter, which was mainly caused by local monsoon winds. A linear long-term upward trend of Kuroshio surface transport during 1993–2015 was found, during which the mean, southeast, and northeast of the Kuroshio east of Taiwan Island increased by 0.30×10 4, 0.22×10 4 and 0.36×10 4 m 2 /s, respectively. Correlation and composite analysis show that the Philippines-Taiwan Oscillation (PTO) is important in the interannual variability of the Kuroshio. PTO-induced relative intensity of anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies is the dominant influence on the interannual variability of the Kuroshio east of Taiwan Island.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ocean Circulation and Waves, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Jifeng Qi  (齐继峰), Baoshu Yin  (尹宝树), Zhenhua Xu  (徐振华) & Delei Li  (李德磊)

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Baoshu Yin  (尹宝树)

Authors
  1. Jifeng Qi  (齐继峰)
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  2. Baoshu Yin  (尹宝树)
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  3. Zhenhua Xu  (徐振华)
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  4. Delei Li  (李德磊)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Baoshu Yin  (尹宝树).

Additional information

Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41506020), the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2012CB956000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41476019, 41528601), the CAS Strategy Pioneering Program (No. XDA110020104), the CAS Interdisciplinary Innovation Team, Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41421005), the NSFC-Shandong Joint Fund for Marine Science Research Centers (No. U1406401), the National Key Research and Development Plan-Sino-Australian Centre for Healthy Coasts (No.2016YFE0101500), the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, CAS, Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction (No. GASI-03-01-01-02), and the Public Science and Technology Research Funds Projects of Ocean (No. 200905013-2)

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Qi, J., Yin, B., Xu, Z. et al. Spatiotemporal variations of the surface Kuroshio east of Taiwan Island derived from satellite altimetry data. J. Ocean. Limnol. 36, 77–91 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-018-6314-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-018-6314-7

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