Amplification of typhoon-generated near-inertial internal waves observed near the Tsushima oceanic front in the Sea of Japan

Abstract

It is not fully understood how near-inertial kinetic energy (NIKE) is spatially distributed near Tsushima oceanic front (TOF) as a typhoon travels across the region. Underneath TOF, a year-round mooring covering a major part of water column was implemented in 2019. During summer, three massive typhoons (Krosa, Tapah, and Mitag) consecutively traversed the frontal area and delivered a substantial amount of NIKE into surface mixed layer. According to a mixed-layer slab model, NIKE was widely distributed near the cyclone’s track. The mooring observation exhibited the vertical distribution and pathways of surface-generated NIKE in response to the successive typhoon events. According to the modal decomposition, first three modes mostly explain the NIKE’s elevations following the typhoon events. According to ray-tracing experiments based on the internal-wave theory, large-scale near-inertial waves (NIWs) rapidly descend to a depth greater than 1000 m, while mesoscale NIWs slowly descend and rarely reached beyond the main pycnocline. Following the passage of Tapah, a profound energy mass was found nearly stationary at shallow depths coincident with vertical shear of geostrophic current. We infer that the descending rate of NIWs fell and then they were amplified through the energy conservation when the waves came from the north side of TOF.