Dataset Information

Submesoscale transition from geostrophic flows to internal waves in the northwestern Pacific upper ocean.

ABSTRACT: With radar interferometry, the next-generation Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite mission will improve the measured sea surface height resolution down to 15?km, allowing us to investigate for the first time the global upper ocean variability at the submesoscale range. Here, by analysing shipboard Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler measurements along 137°E in the northwest Pacific of 2004-2016, we show that the observed upper ocean velocities are comprised of balanced geostrophic flows and unbalanced internal waves. The transition length scale, L_t, separating these two motions, is found to depend strongly on the energy level of local mesoscale eddy variability. In the eddy-abundant western boundary current region of Kuroshio, L_t can be shorter than 15?km, whereas L_t exceeds 200?km along the path of relatively stable North Equatorial Current. Judicious separation between the geostrophic and internal wave signals represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission.

SUBMITTER: Qiu B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5228030 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Submesoscale transition from geostrophic flows to internal waves in the northwestern Pacific upper ocean.

Qiu Bo B Nakano Toshiya T Chen Shuiming S Klein Patrice P

Nature communications 20170109

With radar interferometry, the next-generation Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite mission will improve the measured sea surface height resolution down to 15 km, allowing us to investigate for the first time the global upper ocean variability at the submesoscale range. Here, by analysing shipboard Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler measurements along 137°E in the northwest Pacific of 2004-2016, we show that the observed upper ocean velocities are comprised of balanced geostrophic flows a ...[more]

PMID: 28067242

Similar Datasets

Project description:Nitrogen (N) is a primary limiting nutrient for bacterial growth and productivity in the ocean. To better understand bacterial community and their N utilization strategy in different N regimes of the ocean, we examined bacterial diversity, diazotrophic diversity, and N utilization gene expressions in the northwestern Pacific Ocean (NWPO) using a combination of high-throughput sequencing and real-time qPCR methods. 521 and 204 different operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were identified in the 16s rRNA and nifH libraries from nine surface samples. Of the 16s rRNA gene OTUs, 11.9% were observed in all samples while 3.5 and 15.9% were detected only in N-sufficient and N-deficient samples. Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria and Bacteroidetes dominated the bacterial community. Prochlorococcus and Pseudoalteromonas were the most abundant at the genus level in N-deficient regimes, while SAR86, Synechococcus and SAR92 were predominant in the Kuroshio-Oyashio confluence region. The distribution of the nifH gene presented great divergence among sampling stations: Cyanobacterium_UCYN-A dominated the N-deficient stations, while clusters related to the Alpha-, Beta-, and Gamma-Proteobacteria were abundant in other stations. Temperature was the main factor that determined bacterial community structure and diversity while concentration of NOX-N was significantly correlated with structure and distribution of N2-fixing microorganisms. Expression of the ammonium transporter was much higher than that of urea transporter subunit A (urtA) and ferredoxin-nitrate reductase, while urtA had an increased expression in N-deficient surface water. The predicted ammonium transporter and ammonium assimilation enzymes were most abundant in surface samples while urease and nitrogenase were more abundant in the N-deficient regions. These findings underscore the fact that marine bacteria have evolved diverse N utilization strategies to adapt to different N habitats, and that urea metabolism is of vital ecological importance in N-deficient regimes.

Dataset Information

Submesoscale transition from geostrophic flows to internal waves in the northwestern Pacific upper ocean.

Publications

Submesoscale transition from geostrophic flows to internal waves in the northwestern Pacific upper ocean.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets