Seasonal cycle and inter-annual variability of the Kuroshio/Oyashio current system using multi-channel sea surface temperature and altimetry sea level data Original Research Article

Altimeter data from ERS-2 and TOPEX/POSEIDON are analyzed in conjunction with infrared radiometer data from LANDSAT to study the seasonal cycle and inter-annual variability of the sea surface height and temperature in the northwestern pacific waters, more specific the Kuroshio/Oyashio current system. This entails direct comparisons, frequency and trend analyses, and empirical orthogonal functions analyses. The latter we use for extracting the dominant patterns. Most of the variability propagates westward in correspondence with Rossby wave theory. Deviations are caused by eddies shed from the Kuroshio, and the interaction of current variability with bottom topography.