The interactions between surface Kuroshio transport and the eddy field east of Taiwan using satellite altimeter data

Abstract

Based on the daily sea surface height and absolute geostrophic velocity data from 1993 to 2015 provided by the AVISO Center of French Space Agency, the surface Kuroshio transport east of Taiwan and its adjacent eddy field (sea surface height anomaly) were analyzed. Four main periods of the surface Kuroshio transport and eddy field east of Taiwan were obtained, which were used to reveal their interactions. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Based on the wavelet analysis, the surface Kuroshio transport east of Taiwan and its nearby eddy field showed significant seasonal, annual and interannual periods. In addition to the obvious periods of 182 days (0.5 year) and 365 days (1 year), there were also more obvious periods of about 860 days (2.35 years) and 2 472 days (6.8 years) for the surface Kuroshio transport. There were also four more obvious periods corresponding to the eddy field of 200 days (0.55 year), 374 days (1 year), 889 days (2.43 years) and 2 374 days (6.5 years), although there were latitudinal variations. (2) Based on both the correlation and causal analysis, the correlation between the surface Kuroshio transport and the nearby eddy field over the above four periods was analyzed, and different Kuroshioeddy interactions, with period and latitudinal variability, were revealed.