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Water mass variability in the western North Pacific detected in a 15-year eddy resolving ocean reanalysis

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Abstract

This paper describes a reanalysis of the variability of water mass properties and currents in the western North Pacific using an ocean forecast system, Japan Coastal Ocean Predictability Experiment 2 (JCOPE2), to provide the basic description and information about the quality for data users. We have created the reanalysis data with high horizontal resolution of 1/12° to describe the oceanic variability associated with the Kuroshio-Kuroshio Extension, the Oyashio, and the mesoscale eddies from 1993 to 2007. The products made by an eddy-resolving ocean model combined with the three-dimensional variational data assimilation well reproduced the mean water mass property in the western North Pacific and the interannual variations of the Kuroshio-Kuroshio Extension and the Oyashio coastal branch. From the reanalysis data, we found that both the mean kinetic energy of the Kuroshio Extension axis at the first meandering crest and southward intrusion of the Oyashio coastal branch were closely related with the horizontal distribution of both the Oyashio Water and North Pacific Intermediate Water within the appropriate interannual time scale. The reanalysis data also indicated that the north-south migration of the Kuroshio Extension associated with its regime transitions affected the decadal modulation of the Subtropical Mode Water formation in the recirculation gyre of the Kuroshio Extension.

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Author notes

  1. Joon-Soo Lee

    Present address: Ocean Climate Lab., Ocean Research Team, National Fisheries Research & Development Institute, Sirang-ri, Gijang-eup, Gijang-gun, Busan, 619-902, Korea

  2. Akira Okuno

    Present address: Fisheries Research Agency, Japan Sea National Fisheries Research Institute, Niigata, 951-8121, Japan

  3. Hiroshi Yoshinari

    Present address: Fisheries Research Agency, Hokkaido National Fisheries Research Institute, Kushiro, Hokkaido, 085-0802, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 236-0001, Japan

    Yasumasa Miyazawa, Ruochao Zhang, Xinyu Guo & Hitoshi Tamura

  2. Center for Marine Environmental Studies, Ehime University, Matsuyama, Ehime, 790-8577, Japan

    Xinyu Guo

  3. Fisheries Research Agency, National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 236-8648, Japan

    Daisuke Ambe, Joon-Soo Lee, Akira Okuno, Hiroshi Yoshinari, Takashi Setou & Kosei Komatsu

  4. Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8561, Japan

    Kosei Komatsu

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  1. Yasumasa Miyazawa
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  2. Ruochao Zhang
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  4. Hitoshi Tamura
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  5. Daisuke Ambe
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  10. Kosei Komatsu
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Correspondence to Yasumasa Miyazawa.

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Miyazawa, Y., Zhang, R., Guo, X. et al. Water mass variability in the western North Pacific detected in a 15-year eddy resolving ocean reanalysis. J Oceanogr 65, 737–756 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-009-0063-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-009-0063-3

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