Volume Transport Estimation of the Kuroshio Extension based on Subsurface Mooring Array and Satellite Altimetry

Abstract

The vertical structure of the Kuroshio Extension (KE) is investigated using velocity measurements from a subsurface mooring array. Mode decomposition based on climatological Temperature/Salinity (T/S) data shows that the barotropic and first baroclinic normal modes dominate the vertical structure of the zonal flow in the KE. This structure is also well described by the leading mode of Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs) that contains the first two vertical normal modes. Further analysis demonstrates that the projection coefficient of the mooring velocity onto the summed vertical mode could be well represented by the surface geostrophic velocity. Therefore, we propose a dynamic method that relates the surface geostrophic flow and the vertical structure of the zonal flow. The applicability of this method is verified with both reanalysis datasets and estimation from hydrographic data. The findings implicate that the KE transport can be well reproduced by surface geostrophic flow and climatological T/S data only.