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An irregularly shaped warm eddy observed by Chinese underwater gliders

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Abstract

Mesoscale eddies are important for transporting oceanic energy and matter. We investigated the three-dimensional structure of an irregularly shaped warm eddy using three Chinese underwater gliders and satellite data during May 2015 in the northern South China Sea. The warm eddy lasted for 2 months, remained quasi-steady, and had a mean radius of ~ 70 km from May 10 to May 31. The heat contents observed along the two glider tracks differed markedly, by 2 × 109 J/m2, which reflected an imbalance in the geostrophic and tangential velocity distributions of the eddy. The geostrophic/tangential velocity decreased/increased with depth within the warm eddy. The maximum tangential velocities calculated using the datasets from the two gliders were 0.8 and 0.25 m/s, respectively, confirming that the shape of the warm eddy was horizontally asymmetrical. Large errors can arise when the heat, energy, and matter transport for an irregularly shaped eddy are estimated using a regular circular model. We suggest that more intersecting glider tracks should be used to retrieve the three-dimensional eddy structure, and that those tracks should be better designed. The irregular shape of the warm eddy was likely induced by oceanic currents such as the wind-induced Ekman current. Further study is needed to elucidate the eddy–current interactions and the mechanisms thereof.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key R&D Plan of China (nos. 2017YFC0305804, 2017YFC0305904), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41776027), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (no. 2015A030313151), and the Distinguished Young Teachers of Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (no. 17lgzd11). The glider data were provided by the State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, and Tianjin University. We are grateful for the AVISO (http://www.aviso.oceanobs.com/en/data/products/sea-surface-height-products/global/index.html) sea level anomaly data and the NCEP/NCAR (http://www.ersl.noaa.gov/psd/data/reanalysis/reanalysis.shtml) surface wind speed data. The data associated with this paper are available upon request from the first or corresponding author, with the condition that they will be used solely for scientific research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Center for Coastal Ocean Science and Technology, School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Qiu Chunhua & Su Danyi

  2. State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Mao Huabin & Lian Shumin

  3. School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Wang Yanhui

  4. State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Yu Jiancheng

  5. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering, School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Qiu Chunhua

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  1. Qiu Chunhua
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  2. Mao Huabin
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  3. Wang Yanhui
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  4. Yu Jiancheng
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Correspondence to Mao Huabin.

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Chunhua, Q., Huabin, M., Yanhui, W. et al. An irregularly shaped warm eddy observed by Chinese underwater gliders. J Oceanogr 75, 139–148 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-018-0490-0

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