ASUKA

The Kuroshio off Southern Japan: Analysis of Data from the ASUKA Study
(ASUKA: The Affiliated Surveys of the Kuroshio off Ashizuri-Misaki)

  • Field Program:   1993-1995
  • Principal Investigator:   Mark Wimbush, University of Rhode Island
  • Goal:   Determining and understanding Kuroshio and Kuroshio Countercurrent transports of volume, heat, and salt and their fluctuations on time scales of days to years.
  • Funding for this project was supplied by the Office of Naval Research
ASUKA measurement area
  • Geographic locations of principal ASUKA measurements. Solid circles (large or small) mark sites where hydrographic profiles were usually taken. The larger solid circles also indicate the sites of IES’s. Bull’s eyes are current-meter-mooring sites. Current-meter moorings with asterisks (CM2 and CM4) were topped by upward-looking ADCP’s. Solid line indicates the main ASUKA line. The T/P track is parallel to this line and lies approximately 8 km to the west-southwest. Lower panel shows a sketch of the mean Kuroshio path and recirculation in this region.

Publications

    • Kakinoki, K., S. Imawaki1, H. Uchida, H. Nakamura, K. Ichikawa1, S.-I. Umatani, A. Nishina, H. Ichikawa, and M. Wimbush. Variations of Kuroshio geostrophic transport south of Japan estimated from long-term IES observations. J. Oceanogr., 64:373–384, 2008. (doi:10.1007/s10872-008-0030-4)
    • Book, J. 1998, Kuroshio variability off southwest Japan. M.S. Thesis, University of Rhode Island, 91pp.
    • Book, J., K.L. Tracey, H. Ichikawa, S. Imawaki, H. Uchida, and H. Kinoshita, 1999, The Kuroshio region off southwest Japan, ASUKA 1993-95 inverted echo sounder data report. Graduate School of Oceanography Technical Report 99-1, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02882. (PDF )
    • Book, J.W., M. Wimbush, S. Imawaki, H. Ichikawa, H. Uchida, and H. Kinoshita, 2002, Kuroshio temporal and spatial variations south of Japan determined from inverted echo sounder measurements, J. Geophy. Res., 107(C9), 3121, (doi:10.1029/2001JC000795.)
    • Imawaki, S., H. Ichikawa, H. Uchida, S. Umatani, M. Fukazawa, and M. Wimbush, 1998, Determining Kuroshio volume and heat transport off Shikoku. Japan GOOS Newsletter, 5, 1-11.
    • James, C., 1996, Kuroshio instabilities in the East China Sea: observations, modeling and comparison with the Gulf Stream. Ph.D. thesis, University of Rhode Island, 150pp. (PDF)
    • James, C., M. Wimbush and H. Ichikawa, 1999. Kuroshio Meanders in the East China Sea, J.Phys. Oceanography, 29, 259-272. (doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1999)029%3C0259:KMITEC%3E2.0.CO;2)
    • Wimbush, M., H. Ichikawa, J. Book, H. Uchida, and H. Kinoshita, 1998, Separating baroclinic and barotropic sea-surface height components in the ASUKA region, by combining altimeter and inverted echo sounder measurements. Proceedings of Symposium on Ocean-Earth Dynamics and Satellite Altimetry, Tokyo University Ocean Research Institute, 11-12 November 1997, 33-50.

Link to virtual poster: Inverted Echo Sounder Observations of Kuroshio Meanders South of Japan