Role of mesoscale eddies in transport of Fukushima-derived cesium isotopes in the ocean
We present the results of in-situ measurements of $^{134}$Cs and $^{137}$Cs released from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) collected at surface and different depths in the western North Pacific in June and July 2012. It was found that 15 month after the incident concentrations of radiocesium...
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ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.1410.2359 2023-05-15T18:28:35+02:00 Role of mesoscale eddies in transport of Fukushima-derived cesium isotopes in the ocean Budyansky, M. V. Goryachev, V. A. Kaplunenko, D. D. Lobanov, V. B. Prants, S. V. Sergeev, A. F. Shlyk, N. V. Uleysky, M. Yu. 2014 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1410.2359 https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.2359 unknown arXiv https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2014.09.007 Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode cc-by-nc-sa-3.0 CC-BY-NC-SA Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph FOS Physical sciences article-journal Article ScholarlyArticle Text 2014 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1410.2359 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2014.09.007 2022-04-01T12:46:49Z We present the results of in-situ measurements of $^{134}$Cs and $^{137}$Cs released from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) collected at surface and different depths in the western North Pacific in June and July 2012. It was found that 15 month after the incident concentrations of radiocesium in the Japan and Okhotsk seas were at background or slightly increased level, while they had increased values in the subarctic front area east of Japan. The highest concentrations of $^{134}$Cs and $^{137}$Cs up to 13.5 ${\pm}$ 0.9 and 22.7 ${\pm}$ 1.5 Bq m$^{-3}$ have been found to exceed ten times the background levels before the accident. Maximal content of radiocesium was observed within subsurface and intermediate water layers inside the cores of anticyclonic eddies (100 - 500 m). Even slightly increased content of radiocesium was found at some eddies at depth of 1000 m. It is expected that convergence and subduction of surface water inside eddies are main mechanisms of downward transport of radionuclides. In situ observations are compared with the results of simulated advection of these radioisotopes by the AVISO altimetric velocity field. Different Lagrangian diagnostics are used to reconstruct the history and origin of synthetic tracers imitating measured seawater samples collected in each of those eddies. The results of observations are consistent with the simulated results. It is shown that the tracers, simulating water samples with increased radioactivity to be measured in the cruise, really visited the areas with presumably high level of contamination. Fast water advection between anticyclonic eddies and convergence of surface water inside eddies make them responsible for spreading, accumulation and downward transport of cesium rich water to the intermediate depth in the frontal zone. Text Subarctic DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Okhotsk Pacific Fukushima |
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Open Polar |
collection |
DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph FOS Physical sciences |
spellingShingle |
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph FOS Physical sciences Budyansky, M. V. Goryachev, V. A. Kaplunenko, D. D. Lobanov, V. B. Prants, S. V. Sergeev, A. F. Shlyk, N. V. Uleysky, M. Yu. Role of mesoscale eddies in transport of Fukushima-derived cesium isotopes in the ocean |
topic_facet |
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph FOS Physical sciences |
description |
We present the results of in-situ measurements of $^{134}$Cs and $^{137}$Cs released from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) collected at surface and different depths in the western North Pacific in June and July 2012. It was found that 15 month after the incident concentrations of radiocesium in the Japan and Okhotsk seas were at background or slightly increased level, while they had increased values in the subarctic front area east of Japan. The highest concentrations of $^{134}$Cs and $^{137}$Cs up to 13.5 ${\pm}$ 0.9 and 22.7 ${\pm}$ 1.5 Bq m$^{-3}$ have been found to exceed ten times the background levels before the accident. Maximal content of radiocesium was observed within subsurface and intermediate water layers inside the cores of anticyclonic eddies (100 - 500 m). Even slightly increased content of radiocesium was found at some eddies at depth of 1000 m. It is expected that convergence and subduction of surface water inside eddies are main mechanisms of downward transport of radionuclides. In situ observations are compared with the results of simulated advection of these radioisotopes by the AVISO altimetric velocity field. Different Lagrangian diagnostics are used to reconstruct the history and origin of synthetic tracers imitating measured seawater samples collected in each of those eddies. The results of observations are consistent with the simulated results. It is shown that the tracers, simulating water samples with increased radioactivity to be measured in the cruise, really visited the areas with presumably high level of contamination. Fast water advection between anticyclonic eddies and convergence of surface water inside eddies make them responsible for spreading, accumulation and downward transport of cesium rich water to the intermediate depth in the frontal zone. |
format |
Text |
author |
Budyansky, M. V. Goryachev, V. A. Kaplunenko, D. D. Lobanov, V. B. Prants, S. V. Sergeev, A. F. Shlyk, N. V. Uleysky, M. Yu. |
author_facet |
Budyansky, M. V. Goryachev, V. A. Kaplunenko, D. D. Lobanov, V. B. Prants, S. V. Sergeev, A. F. Shlyk, N. V. Uleysky, M. Yu. |
author_sort |
Budyansky, M. V. |
title |
Role of mesoscale eddies in transport of Fukushima-derived cesium isotopes in the ocean |
title_short |
Role of mesoscale eddies in transport of Fukushima-derived cesium isotopes in the ocean |
title_full |
Role of mesoscale eddies in transport of Fukushima-derived cesium isotopes in the ocean |
title_fullStr |
Role of mesoscale eddies in transport of Fukushima-derived cesium isotopes in the ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Role of mesoscale eddies in transport of Fukushima-derived cesium isotopes in the ocean |
title_sort |
role of mesoscale eddies in transport of fukushima-derived cesium isotopes in the ocean |
publisher |
arXiv |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1410.2359 https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.2359 |
geographic |
Okhotsk Pacific Fukushima |
geographic_facet |
Okhotsk Pacific Fukushima |
genre |
Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Subarctic |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2014.09.007 |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode cc-by-nc-sa-3.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-SA |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1410.2359 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2014.09.007 |
_version_ |
1766211121033773056 |