Observing mesoscale eddy effects on mode-water subduction and transport in the North Pacific

Observing mesoscale eddy effects on mode-water subduction and transport in the North Pacific

While modelling studies suggest that mesoscale eddies strengthen the subduction of mode waters, this eddy effect has never been observed in the field. Here we report results from a field campaign from March 2014 that captured the eddy effects on mode-water subduction south of the Kuroshio Extension...

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Main Authors: Xu, Lixiao, Li, Peiliang, Xie, Shang-Ping, Liu, Qinyu, Liu, Cong, Gao, Wendian
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4740428/
id pubmed-4740428
recordtype oai_dc
spelling pubmed-47404282016-03-04 Observing mesoscale eddy effects on mode-water subduction and transport in the North Pacific Xu, Lixiao Li, Peiliang Xie, Shang-Ping Liu, Qinyu Liu, Cong Gao, Wendian Article While modelling studies suggest that mesoscale eddies strengthen the subduction of mode waters, this eddy effect has never been observed in the field. Here we report results from a field campaign from March 2014 that captured the eddy effects on mode-water subduction south of the Kuroshio Extension east of Japan. The experiment deployed 17 Argo floats in an anticyclonic eddy (AC) with enhanced daily sampling. Analysis of over 3,000 hydrographic profiles following the AC reveals that potential vorticity and apparent oxygen utilization distributions are asymmetric outside the AC core, with enhanced subduction near the southeastern rim of the AC. There, the southward eddy flow advects newly ventilated mode water from the north into the main thermocline. Our results show that subduction by eddy lateral advection is comparable in magnitude to that by the mean flow—an effect that needs to be better represented in climate models. Nature Publishing Group 2016-02-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4740428/ /pubmed/26829888 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10505 Text en Copyright © 2016, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Xu, Lixiao
Li, Peiliang
Xie, Shang-Ping
Liu, Qinyu
Liu, Cong
Gao, Wendian
spellingShingle Xu, Lixiao
Li, Peiliang
Xie, Shang-Ping
Liu, Qinyu
Liu, Cong
Gao, Wendian
Observing mesoscale eddy effects on mode-water subduction and transport in the North Pacific
author_facet Xu, Lixiao
Li, Peiliang
Xie, Shang-Ping
Liu, Qinyu
Liu, Cong
Gao, Wendian
author_sort Xu, Lixiao
title Observing mesoscale eddy effects on mode-water subduction and transport in the North Pacific
title_short Observing mesoscale eddy effects on mode-water subduction and transport in the North Pacific
title_full Observing mesoscale eddy effects on mode-water subduction and transport in the North Pacific
title_fullStr Observing mesoscale eddy effects on mode-water subduction and transport in the North Pacific
title_full_unstemmed Observing mesoscale eddy effects on mode-water subduction and transport in the North Pacific
title_sort observing mesoscale eddy effects on mode-water subduction and transport in the north pacific
description While modelling studies suggest that mesoscale eddies strengthen the subduction of mode waters, this eddy effect has never been observed in the field. Here we report results from a field campaign from March 2014 that captured the eddy effects on mode-water subduction south of the Kuroshio Extension east of Japan. The experiment deployed 17 Argo floats in an anticyclonic eddy (AC) with enhanced daily sampling. Analysis of over 3,000 hydrographic profiles following the AC reveals that potential vorticity and apparent oxygen utilization distributions are asymmetric outside the AC core, with enhanced subduction near the southeastern rim of the AC. There, the southward eddy flow advects newly ventilated mode water from the north into the main thermocline. Our results show that subduction by eddy lateral advection is comparable in magnitude to that by the mean flow—an effect that needs to be better represented in climate models.
publisher Nature Publishing Group
publishDate 2016
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4740428/
_version_ 1613533346832318464

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