An irregularly shaped warm eddy observed by Chinese underwater gliders

作者:Qiu Chunhua; Mao Huabin*; Wang Yanhui; Yu Jiancheng; Su Danyi; Lian Shumin
来源:Journal of Oceanography, 2019, 75(2): 139-148.
DOI:10.1007/s10872-018-0490-0

摘要

Mesoscale eddies are important for transporting oceanic energy and matter. We investigated the three-dimensional structure of an irregularly shaped warm eddy using three Chinese underwater gliders and satellite data during May 2015 in the northern South China Sea. The warm eddy lasted for 2 months, remained quasi-steady, and had a mean radius of similar to 70 km from May 10 to May 31. The heat contents observed along the two glider tracks differed markedly, by 2 x 10(9) J/m(2), which reflected an imbalance in the geostrophic and tangential velocity distributions of the eddy. The geostrophic/tangential velocity decreased/increased with depth within the warm eddy. The maximum tangential velocities calculated using the datasets from the two gliders were 0.8 and 0.25 m/s, respectively, confirming that the shape of the warm eddy was horizontally asymmetrical. Large errors can arise when the heat, energy, and matter transport for an irregularly shaped eddy are estimated using a regular circular model. We suggest that more intersecting glider tracks should be used to retrieve the three-dimensional eddy structure, and that those tracks should be better designed. The irregular shape of the warm eddy was likely induced by oceanic currents such as the wind-induced Ekman current. Further study is needed to elucidate the eddy-current interactions and the mechanisms thereof.