Significance of High-Frequency Wind Forcing in Modelling the Kuroshio

Abstract

Motivated by an analysis of a satellite sea surface temperature image suggesting that a train of extra-tropical cyclones induces amplification of the Kuroshio meander, a regional Kuroshio/Oyashio general circulation model was used to investigate the impact of high-frequency wind on the Kuroshio path variations. Near Japan, the standard deviation of the wind stress curl can be 10 times larger than the monthly mean, so the synoptic variations of the wind stress curl cannot be neglected. With the bimodal Kuroshio case realized in the model, sensitivity tests were conducted using monthly and daily mean QuikSCAT-derived wind stress forcings. The comparison showed that the high-frequency local wind perturbed the Shikoku recirculation gyre (SRG) and caused a transition of the path from straight to meander. The strong anticyclonic eddy within the SRG triggered the meander in the latter case. The high-frequency wind perturbed the motion of the eddy that would have otherwise detached from the Kuroshio, migrated south and terminated the meandering state. The result reinforces the suggestion from previous studies that the anticyclonic eddy within the SRG plays an active role in controlling the Kuroshio path variations.