Interaction between submesoscale flows and microscale turbulent mixing, and their impacts on nutrients supply near the Kuroshio Front

为了阐明黑潮锋是否是微尺度湍流增强耗散的场所，并调查次中尺度现象对水团形成和营养物质供应的影响，进行了一系列的海洋学实地活动。研究发现，黑潮锋不仅是表层混合层锋面的湍流耗散混合点，也是黑潮主流下温跃层的湍流耗散混合点。用观测得到的初始条件对黑潮进行数值模拟的结果表明，黑潮锋也是一个主要的内波产生器。营养盐采样结果表明，营养丰富的Oyashio水可以渗透到营养贫乏的黑潮水中，可能通过黑潮表层混合层锋面的亚中尺度俯冲对黑潮进行肥化。

A series of oceanographic field campaigns has been conducted to elucidate whether the Kuroshio Front is a site of enhanced microscale turbulent dissipation, and to investigate the impacts of submesoscale phenomena on watermass formations and nutrient supply. We found that the Kuroshio Front is the site of turbulent dissipation and mixing not only in the surface mixed layer front, but also in the thermocline under the Kuroshio main stream. The results from the numerical simulations of the Kuroshio with initial conditions taken from the observations suggest that the Kuroshio Front is also a major internal wave generator. The results of nutrient sample shows that the nutrient-rich Oyashio water can be penetrated into the nutrient-poor Kuroshio water, possibly fertilizing the Kuroshio by submesoscale subduction in the surface mixed layer front of the Kuroshio.