The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) around the western entrance of the Tsugaru Strait has yielded well-defined images of an internal-wave packet accompanied by two or three surface-streaks (surface convergence within the same water mass), which is active during the stratified season, and whose wavelength is in the order of several hundred meters. Most of the waves in the packet were observed near the topographically shallow parts of the sill. Temporal changes were repeatedly observed in the internal waves confined to the sill using a high-frequency echosounder profiler within one-day in the summer 2017. The acoustic images suggest that a wave packet of extraordinary amplitude (> 150 m) has developed transiently around the downstream side of the sill at the ascending passage flow. This wave packet consists of two or three successive streak bands, with very disturbed sea surface conditions overlying wave troughs, i.e., strong downwelling areas. The dynamics of such waves developing over the sill is studied through a fully nonlinear nonhydrostatic numerical model. The vertical fluid stratification and temporal change of the barotropic passage flow were adjusted to approximate our observation conditions. The results suggest that the wave packet is effectively amplified near the downstream side of the sill, where the Froude number becomes a critical point, because upstream propagating waves on the sill slope stagnate and overlap efficiently. In this dynamical process, however, even if the wave grows to large amplitude, it does not form a well-organized solitary wave, but is rather scattered due to the strong dispersion of waves.
A current system consisting of surface clockwise circulation is the most remarkable feature observed in Funka Bay during early summer. The present study investigates its formation process using a numerical model driven by the following three factors during the typically strati fied season, i.e., (1) freshening of coastal water because of river discharge, (2) density inflow of Tsugaru Gyre water, and (3) surface heat flux. It was found that the "topographic heat accu mulation effect" resulting from surface heating is essential for the genesis of the surface clock wise circulation. Because of the surface offshore flow generated by the thermal contrast be tween the shallow coastal and deep central regions, a weak anti-clockwise geostrophic flow is initially formed. Nevertheless, with continuous thermal forcing, after a few months, this offshore flow gradually reinforces the upslope transport of cold dense water. When the cooling resulting from the dense water upslope dominates in comparison to the downward heating resulting from vertical diffusivity around the coastal sea bottom, the coastal water is relatively colder than the offshore surface water. Therefore, shallowing of the interface toward the coast drives the geos trophic flow proceeding along the coast to the left-handed side. In response to this change, an isolated clockwise circulation begins to establish from the surface layer of the northern bay head, while an initially formed anti-clockwise flow migrates to the deeper region.
The detailed distributions of flow, temperature fields, and the temporal change of diurnal eddies accompanied with the Cold Water Belt (CWB) are observed by CTD and one-day repeated XBT/ADCP measurements across the Soya Warm Current (SWC) in the summer of 2016. Saline water originating from the Japan Sea Intermediate Water (JSIW) was found below the CWB. Tracer experiments using numerical models predict the offshore-side water of the SWC is supplied by onshore advection and upwelling of the deeper JSIW. The nearly homogeneous JSIW is taken into a counter-clockwise isolated eddy, which is periodically generated by the diurnal tidal current around the Soya Strait and is advected downstream along the offshore side of the SWC. Therefore, the majority of the water below the CWB, which is weakly stratified, is composed of this eddy street.