Ocean Water Intrusions into the Seto Inland Sea in the Numerical Ocean Modeling

Abstract

Open-ocean water intrusions from the Kuroshio surface (and/or intermediate) layer are considerable processes for the ecosystem of the semi-enclosed coastal sea such as the Seto Inland Sea. To reproduce the ecosystem in the Seto Inland Sea, a numerical ocean model is constructed by using daily reanalysis data demonstrating the Kuroshio path of the open ocean. The model results are verified quantitatively and examined the ocean water intrusion focusing cold water intrusion into the bottom layer of the Bungo Channel, and warm water intrusion in the surface layer of the channel, called kyucho. Modeled temperature explains the cold water intrusion into the bottom layer of the channel, and cannot demonstrate kyucho because of the lack of disturbance derived the Kuroshio frontal eddies in the reanalysis data.