Seasonal Variations of Water Properties and the Baroclinic Flow Pattern in Toyama Bay under the Influence of the Tsushima Warm Current

Abstract

The seasonal variations of water properties and the baroclinic flow pattern in the upper layer of Toyama Bay, where the shelf breaks in the passway of the eastward coastal branch of the Tsushima Warm Current, have been examined using temperature and salinity data from 26 local stations collected in the 32 years from 1963 through 1994. The results show that the flow pattern around the bay, as inferred from the distributions of the geopotential anomaly at 300 dbar and saline core water, changes remarkably from summer to autumn. There are two obvious inflows into Toyama Bay in a year. One is the surface inflow of less saline water from east of the Noto Peninsula as the coastal-trapped density-driven flow of the coastal branch during the transition from May to July. In September, this inflow is abruptly weakened by a transient northwestward reversal flow in the intermediate layer around 100 m depth. This reversal flow is accompanied by the temporary shallowness of the pycnoclines inside the bay. At that time, another inflow with more saline water of the year occurs in the intermediate layer. From November until January, this reversal flow disappears and a southeastward passing through-flow gradually intensifies across the bay mouth, accompanied by deepening of the pycnoclines inside the bay. According to our interannual analysis over the 32-year study period, this reversal flow has been a stable seasonal phenomenon, except for only 4 years, in which a local warm region or warm eddy developed just north of the Noto Peninsula.