INTRODUCTION
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How is the heat transported from
the tropics by the Kuroshio redistributed in the presence
of the nonlinear interactions that dominate Kuroshio Extension dynamics?
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The Kuroshio Extension System Study
is a proposed multi-institutional international
study designed to investigate the Kuroshio Extension System from 2001 to 2005.
The goal is to understand the mechanisms that govern the Kuroshio
Extension and associated recirculation gyre variability,
and to identify the processes responsible for interannual variations of
upper-ocean heat content and sea surface temperature in the
region.
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An acoustic tomography array has been maintained by JAMSTEC
from July to September 1997.
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Project Objectives
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Demonstrate the capability of the tomographic techniques in monitoring the
variability of the 1000 km-scale three-dimensional oceanic structures.
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Obtain information about the of acoustic environment for the
design of the tomography array in the KESS program.
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Location map of the Kuroshio Extension tomography
experiment with the path of major currents and the frontal position.
Thick solid lines connecting transceiver stations T1-T5 show the
acoustic ray paths projected on the horizontal section. Thin
solid lines show the ground tracks of the TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite.
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Here, we focus on comparison of acoustic tomography and
TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter measurements.
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