Show simple item record

contributor authorFurue, Ryo
contributor authorMcCreary, Julian P.
contributor authorYu, Zuojun
date accessioned2017-06-09T16:30:33Z
date available2017-06-09T16:30:33Z
date copyright2009/09/01
date issued2009
identifier issn0022-3670
identifier otherams-69130.pdf
identifier urihttp://onlinelibrary.yabesh.ir/handle/yetl/4210765
description abstractThe Tsuchiya jets (TJs) are narrow eastward currents located along thermal fronts at the poleward edges of thermostad water in the Pacific Ocean. In this study, an oceanic general circulation model (OGCM) is used to explore the dynamics of the northern TJ. Solutions are found in a rectangular basin, extending 100° zonally and from 40°S to 40°N. They are forced by three idealized forcings: several patches of idealized wind fields, including one that simulates the strong Ekman pumping region in the vicinity of the Costa Rica Dome (CRD); surface heating that warms the ocean in the tropics; and a prescribed interocean circulation (IOC) that enters the basin through the southern boundary and exits through the western boundary from 2° to 6°N (the model?s Indonesian passages). Solutions forced by all the aforementioned processes and with minimal diffusion resemble the observed flow field in the tropical North Pacific. A narrow eastward current, the model?s northern TJ, flows across the basin along the northern edge of a thick equatorial thermostad. Part of the TJ water upwells at the CRD upwelling region and the rest returns westward in the lower part of the North Equatorial Current. The deeper part of the TJ is supplied by water that leaves the western boundary current somewhat north of the equator. Its shallower part originates from water that diverges from the deep portion of the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC); as a result, the TJ transport increases to the east and the TJ warms as it flows across the basin. These and other properties suggest that the dynamics of the model?s TJ are those of an arrested front, which in a 2½-layer model are generated when characteristics of the flow converge strongly or intersect. Eddy form stress, due to instability waves generated at the CRD region, extends the TJ circulation to deeper levels. When diffusivity is increased to commonly used values, the thermostad is less well defined and the TJ is weak. In a solution without the IOC, the TJ is shifted to higher temperatures with its water supplied by the subtropical cell. When horizontal viscosity is reduced, the TJ becomes narrower and is flanked by a westward current on its equatorward side.
publisherAmerican Meteorological Society
titleDynamics of the Northern Tsuchiya Jet
typeJournal Paper
journal volume39
journal issue9
journal titleJournal of Physical Oceanography
identifier doi10.1175/2009JPO4065.1
journal fristpage2024
journal lastpage2051
treeJournal of Physical Oceanography:;2009:;Volume( 039 ):;issue: 009
contenttypeFulltext


Files in this item

Thumbnail

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record