Second Abstract

Eddies formed from western boundary currents such as the Kuroshio Extension and Gulf Stream are the most energetic eddies in the ocean and are commonly referred to as rings. Rings that form from meander troughs are cyclonic in rotation and are termed cold-core rings. The Gulf Stream has a long history of field experiments on rings, but rings have been explored less in the Kuroshio Extension. Satellite altimetry data, merged and gridded by Aviso, was used to track 47 cold-core rings from birth to death during 1993-2007 in the region 2700 km east of Japan (140-170◦ E). The focus of this talk is on the birth of these rings and how their formation may change as a function of time and space. Unlike what has been observed in the Gulf Stream, the Kuroshio Extension exhibits changes in the first 900 km (140-150◦ E) between stable and unstable periods on decadal time scales. During unstable periods, the Kuroshio Extension meanders vigorously, but during stable periods the path settles into a quasi-stationary meander of wavelength ∼ 500 km. In the first 900 km east of Japan (140-150◦ E), when the path was “stable” only one ring formed in four years, but when the path was “unstable” six rings formed in four years. Downstream in the next 1800 km (150-170 ◦ E), approximately equal numbers of rings formed (10,11) in the same four year stable and unstable periods. Implications for this case-study based approach yields metrics for numerical and theoretical modelling efforts.

Stuart Bishop received a B.S in Physics from Clemson University in 2006. He entered GSO as a Ph.D. candidate in the fall of 2006. His major professor is D. Randolph Watts.

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