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Updated: Aug 16, 2025

Surface Renewal: An Advanced Micrometeorological Method for Measuring and Processing Field-Scale Energy Flux Density Data
Published on: December 12, 2013
USV-Observed Turbulent Heat Flux Induced by Late Spring Cold Dry Air Incursion over Sub-Mesoscale Warm Regions off
Akira Nagano1, Takuya Hasegawa2,3, Keisuke Ariyoshi4
1Research Institute for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokosuka 237-0061, Japan.
Abstract:
We performed oceanic and atmospheric observations in the region off the Sanriku coast, Japan, from May 11 to 5 July 2022, using a wave-propelled unmanned surface vehicle, a Wave Glider (WG). Despite the severe weather conditions of atmospheric low-pressure system crossings, we successfully measured wind, air temperature, humidity, and sea surface temperature over the course of 55 days to calculate the turbulent heat flux. The WG observed that the atmosphere became more humid due to the southerly wind along the northwestern rim of the North Pacific subtropical high. The warm Kuroshio water expanded to the southeast of Hokkaido as a result of the northward shedding of an anticyclonic mesoscale (~100 km) eddy, called a warm-core ring, from the Kuroshio Extension. The WG traversed smaller (sub-mesoscale) water regions that were warmer and saltier than the surrounding Kuroshio water. The observations indicate that cold, dry air masses advected by northerly winds following the passage of atmospheric low-pressure systems generate a substantial upward turbulent heat flux over sub-mesoscale warm water regions, contrasting to no heat flux in the surrounding Kuroshio water region.
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