The Kuroshio East of Taiwan: Modes of Variability and Relationship to Interior Ocean Mesoscale Eddies

Abstract

Abstract Observations from the World Ocean Circulation Experiment PCM-1 moored current meter array in the East Taiwan Channel are analyzed and combined with TOPEX/Poseidon altimetry data and the Parallel Ocean Climate Model simulation to study Kuroshio variability and relationships to westward propagating sea surface height anomalies in the Philippine Sea. Approximately 60% of the total subinertial velocity and temperature variance in the Kuroshio east of Taiwan is associated with so-called “transport” and “meandering” modes revealed from empirical orthogonal function analysis. The transport mode is dominated by a 100-day peak, while the most coherent energetic meandering signals are found in three limited frequency bands centered near periods of 100 days, 40 days, and 18 days. The detailed structure of the meanders is studied by frequency domain EOF analysis, which also reveals a higher frequency meander centered near 10 days confined to the western side of the channel. On the 100-day timescale, the Kuro...