Observing mesoscale eddy effects on mode-water subduction and transport in the North Pacific

Lixiao Xu, Peiliang Li, Shang-Ping Xie (), Qinyu Liu, Cong Liu and Wendian Gao
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Lixiao Xu: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China
Peiliang Li: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China
Shang-Ping Xie: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China
Qinyu Liu: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China
Cong Liu: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China
Wendian Gao: Physical Oceanography Laboratory/Qingdao Collaborative Innovation Center of Marine Science and Technology, Ocean University of China

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract While modelling studies suggest that mesoscale eddies strengthen the subduction of mode waters, this eddy effect has never been observed in the field. Here we report results from a field campaign from March 2014 that captured the eddy effects on mode-water subduction south of the Kuroshio Extension east of Japan. The experiment deployed 17 Argo floats in an anticyclonic eddy (AC) with enhanced daily sampling. Analysis of over 3,000 hydrographic profiles following the AC reveals that potential vorticity and apparent oxygen utilization distributions are asymmetric outside the AC core, with enhanced subduction near the southeastern rim of the AC. There, the southward eddy flow advects newly ventilated mode water from the north into the main thermocline. Our results show that subduction by eddy lateral advection is comparable in magnitude to that by the mean flow—an effect that needs to be better represented in climate models.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10505

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