Prof. Chen-Tung Arthur Chen

Distinguished Chair Research Professor

Department of Oceanography

National Sun Yat-sen University

E-mail: ctchen@mail.nsysu.edu.tw

Research interests: Nutrients and carbon cycle. Ocean acidification (including hydrothermal, vents and heavy metals). Global change (including paleo studies)

The Subsurface Kuroshio Front

Abstract

In 1996 Chen and Huang showed that there is a subsurface front between 350 and 1350m at about 122°E in the Kuroshio SE of Taiwan. East of the front is the West Philippine Sea (WPS) water and on the west is a mixture of the WPS water and the South China Sea (SCS) water coming out of the SCS. This SCS-influenced water can be traced to south of Japan and beyond (Chen, 2005). We now show that there are three modes of the northward flowing Kuroshio nutrient stream which was first identified by Chen et al. (1994). The most prominent mode shows two separate nutrient stream cores on each side of 121.6°E, near where the subsurface Kuroshio is. The western core is almost pure SCS water while the eastern core is a mixture of SCS and WPS waters. The second most prominent mode also has two separate nutrient stream cores but now with a southward nutrient flux on each side of 121.6°E. On the west is largely SCS waters while on the east is a mixture of the SCS and WPS waters.

The third mode contains only one single core composed of almost an equal mixture of SCS and WPS waters