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Near‐inertial oscillations interacting with mesoscale circulation in the southwestern Japan/East Sea
Author(s) -
Park JaeHun,
Watts D. Randolph
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2005gl022936
Subject(s) - mesoscale meteorology , inertial wave , thermocline , geology , anticyclone , inertial frame of reference , internal wave , climatology , atmospheric sciences , geophysics , physics , wave propagation , oceanography , optics , mechanical wave , longitudinal wave , quantum mechanics
The near‐inertial internal wave energy distribution is investigated in the southwestern Japan/East Sea using vertical round‐trip travel time of sound (τ) data from 23 pressure‐sensor‐equipped inverted echo sounders (PIESs) and data from Aanderaa recording current meters (CMs). Currents associated with low‐mode near‐inertial internal waves are slightly inclined and displace the thermocline vertically, which can be detected in τ. The band‐pass filtered τ records exhibit high near‐inertial energy distributions that vary interannually with changes observed in mesoscale circulation. An explanation for this is offered as trapping of near‐inertial energy in anticyclonic regions, which is supported by scatterplots of monthly‐rms band‐pass filtered τ at inertial frequency bands vs. monthly‐mean relative vorticity. The spectra from all but one deep CM exhibit a blue shift, consistent with the equatorward propagation of near‐inertial waves. The exception has the highest near‐inertial wave energy, and is located near the center of a warm anticyclonic eddy.