Copyright © The Oceanographic Society of Japan. Seasonal and Interannual Variations in the East Sakhalin Current Revealed by TOPEX/POSEIDON Altimeter Data

• Main Author: East Sakhalin
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Curl; Okhotsk; Sakhalin; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.452.6340; http://www.terrapub.co.jp/journals/JO/pdf/6202/62020171.pdf

Seasonal and interannual variations in the East Sakhalin Current (ESC) are investi-gated using ten-year records of the sea level anomaly (SLA) observed by the TOPEX/ POSEIDON (T/P) altimeter. The T/P SLA clearly documents seasonal and interannual variations in the ESC along the east coast of Sakhalin Island, although sea ice masks the region from January to April. Estimates of surface current velocity anomaly de-rived from T/P SLA are in good agreement with drifting buoy observations. The ESC is strong in winter, with a typical current velocity of 30–40 cm s–1 in December, and almost disappears in summer. Southward flow of the ESC is confined to the shelf and slope region and consists of two velocity cores. These features of the ESC are consist-ent with short-term observations reported in previous studies. Analysis of the ten-year records of T/P SLA confirms that the structure of the ESC is maintained each winter and the seasonal cycle is repeated every year, although the strength of the ESC shows large interannual variations. Seasonal and interannual variations in the ESC are discussed in relation to wind-driven circulation in the Sea of Okhotsk, using wind stress and wind stress curl fields derived from European Centre for Medium Range