Scientific Journal PACIFIC OCEANOGRAPHY Volume 1, Number 2 2003 FAR EASTERN REGIONAL HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE Russian Federal Service For Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (ROSHYDROMET) http://po.hydromet.com Editor-in-Chief Dr. Yuriy N. Volkov FERHRI, Vladivostok, Russia / Email: [email protected] Editor Dr. Igor E. Kochergin FERHRI, Vladivostok, Russia / Email: [email protected] Editor Dr. Mikhail A. Danchenkov FERHRI, Vladivostok, Russia / Email: [email protected] Executive Secretary Mrs. Elena S. Borozdinova FERHRI, Vladivostok, Russia / Email: [email protected] Editorial Board D.G. Aubrey (Woods Hole Group, Falmouth, USA) Yu.A. Mikishin (FESU, Vladivostok, Russia) T.A. Belan (FERHRI, Vladivostok, Russia) J.E. O’Reilly (Exxon/Mobil, Houston, USA) G.H. Hong (KORDI, Ansan, Republic of Korea) Y.D. Resnyansky (Hydrometcenter of RF, Moscow, Russia) J.H. Yoon (RIAM, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan) S.C. Riser (University of Washington, Seattle, USA) E.V. Karasev (FERHRI, Vladivostok, Russia) M. Takematsu (RIAM, Kyushu University (retired), Fukuoka, Japan) K. Kim (Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea) A.V. Tkalin (FERHRI, Vladivostok, Russia) V.B. Lobanov (POI FEBRAS, Vladivostok, Russia) S.M. Varlamov (RIAM, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan) Secretariat contact: Elena Borozdinova, Pacific Oceanography, FERHRI, 24, Fontannaya Street, Vladivostok 690990, Russia Email: [email protected] Home page: http://po.hydromet.com Tel: +7 (4232) 267352 Fax: +7 (4232) 269281 “Pacific Oceanography” registered with the Russian Ministry of Mass Media, Reg. No. 77–12296, 2 April 2002 PUBLISHED BY: Far Eastern Regional Hydrometeorological Research Institute (FERHRI), 24, Fontannaya Street, Vladivostok 690990, Russia Email: [email protected] Home page: http://www.hydromet.com PRINTED AND BOUND IN: Dalnauka Press, Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Science, 7, Radio Street, Vladivostok 690041, Russia (Order no. 55, Print run 240, Rel. sheets 7,3) ISSN 1728-3809 © FERHRI, 2003 TABLE OF CONTENTS 89 FROM THE EDITORS PAPERS Physical Oceanography 90 SST FRONTS OF THE PACIFIC COASTAL AND MARGINAL SEAS I. Belkin, P. Cornillon 114 HEAT EXCHANGE BETWEEN THE NORTHERN PACIFIC AND THE ATMOSPHERE A.D. Nelezin, A.N. Man’ko, V.A. Petrova 120 ON SOME FEATURES OF THE WATER CIRCULATION IN THE NW PACIFIC UNDER DIFFERENT SYNOPTIC CONDITIONS G.A. Vlasova, S.S. Sugak Marine Meteorology 125 MULTISCALE CLIMATE VARIABILITY IN THE ASIAN PACIFIC V.I. Ponomarev, V.V. Krokhin, D.D. Kaplunenko, A.S. Salomatin 138 MULTIYEAR VARIABILITY OF NORTH PACIFIC HIGH AND ALEUTIAN LOW T.V. Bogdanovskaya, N.S. Kupera 144 INTRA-ANNUAL BUNDLES OF CLIMATIC PARAMETERS V.A. Svyatuha, G.Sh. Tsitsiashvili, T.A. Shatilina, A.A. Goryainov Marine Environment 149 FLUXES AND BALANCE OF 210PB IN THE NORTHWESTERN JAPAN SEA S. Otosaka, M. Baba, O. Togawa, E.V. Karasev 158 THE PRESENT STATUS OF BOTTOM ECOSYSTEMS OF PETER THE GREAT BAY (THE SEA OF JAPAN) T.A. Belan, A.V. Tkalin, T.S. Lishavskaya Applied Oceanography 168 SEASONAL AND SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF SEA CURRENTS ON THE SAKHALIN NORTHEASTERN SHELF (BY INSTRUMENTAL DATA) S.I. Rybalko, G.V. Shevchenko 179 SEAWATER DENSITY DISTRIBUTION IN PETER THE GREAT BAY M.A. Danchenkov PACIFIC OCEANOGRAPHY, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2003 TABLE OF CONTENTS 87 INFORMATION 185 TRACE METALS IN BOTTOM SEDIMENTS NEAR VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA A.V. Tkalin, B.J. Presley 188 ARSENIC CONTENT IN WATERS OF AMURSKY BAY (THE SEA OF JAPAN) IN NOVEMBER 2001 E.A. Grebenyuk ARGO News 192 PROFILING FLOATS LOST AND CAUGHT IN THE JAPAN SEA M.A. Danchenkov, S.C. Riser FERHRI News 194 ON-LINE OIL SPILL MODELING WITHIN NAVY EXERCISES IN THE NW PACIFIC MARGINAL SEAS IN AUGUST 2003 I.E. Kochergin, A.A. Bogdanovsky, I.A. Arshinov, V.D. Budaeva, N.S. Kupera, V.G. Makarov, S.I. Rybalko, P.A. Fayman History 198 BEGINNING OF HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN VLADIVOSTOK L.V. Kobylinsky 88 TABLE OF CONTENTS PACIFIC OCEANOGRAPHY, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2003 FROM THE EDITORS hope our journal will contribute to the progress in Dear colleagues, oceanography and cooperation between the scientists This is the second issue of the new international and all over the world. peer-reviewed journal “Pacific Oceanography”. This Starting from this issue, we will open our journal is a specialized publication devoted to advances in with a review paper. We invite you to submit reviews oceanography of the Northwestern Pacific and its on oceanographic and meteorological conditions of marginal seas and related topics. the seas of the Pacific Ocean or about leading “Pacific Oceanography” is published by the Far oceanographic institutions working in the Pacific Eastern Regional Hydrometeorological Research Ocean basin. Institute (FERHRI, Vladivostok, Russia) but it does We invite advertisers to place their information in not mean that the scientists from Russian Far East “Pacific Oceanography” too. By placing your have higher priority. Results of joint marine advertisement in “Pacific Oceanography” you will expeditions and research published in “Pacific not only have a chance to find new partners in the Oceanography” will be a good proof of establishing Russian Far East, but also help the new Russian international data exchange. journal to grow up and become known worldwide. 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We PACIFIC OCEANOGRAPHY, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2003 FROM THE EDITORS 89 SST FRONTS OF THE PACIFIC COASTAL AND MARGINAL SEAS I. Belkin, P. Cornillon Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island (URI), USA Email: [email protected] The Pathfinder AVHRR SST data from 1985–1996 are used to survey thermal fronts of the Pacific coastal and marginal seas. The SST fields are declouded and fronts are detected with the Cayula-Cornillon algorithms developed at the URI. In this work we describe newly found, persistent frontal features and their seasonal variability as well as interannual variability. Major climatic fronts are identified and compared with literature data. The ocean-wide frontal pattern consists of several types of fronts. Western boundary currents (Kuroshio, Oyashio, and the East Australian Current) are associated with well-defined fronts. Eastern boundary fronts are also prominent, especially in the North Pacific (California Current System). In the Tasman Sea, a quasi- stationary bifurcation of the Tasman Front is identified at 35°S, 165°E; the Subtropical Front has been traced from south of Tasmania eastward up to the Southland Current off New Zealand. A well-defined double Subtropical Frontal Zone is confirmed east of New Zealand. A new front is observed in the tropical-subtropical Southeast Pacific. Shelf-slope fronts are observed over the shelf break/upper slope almost everywhere. Being strictly controlled by topography, these fronts are quasi-stationary and therefore readily located from satellite data. Inner shelf fronts are observed in the Bering Sea, Eastern China Seas, and South China Sea. Coastal upwelling fronts are observed west of the American continent. These fronts are seasonally dependent, being best seen in winter. Vast frontal zones, apparently associated with coastal upwelling, extend much farther offshore than anticipated, up to O(1000km) into the open ocean. INTRODUCTION by “Western and eastern boundary currents” that details boundary currents of the Northwest Pacific, Ocean fronts are relatively narrow zones that separate Northeast Pacific, Southwest Pacific, and Southeast broader zones with different stratification types and/or Pacific. Fronts of the Pacific marginal seas are described different water masses; the fronts are almost always in “Marginal Seas”. Principal results and conclusions are accompanied by enhanced horizontal gradients of summarized in the last Section. The References section temperature, salinity, density, nutrients and other contains an extensive bibliography; the space properties (Fedorov, 1986; Belkin, 2003). Fronts and limitations, however, forced us to provide only the the associated currents are critically important in heat minimum number of references for each front and and salt transport, ocean-atmosphere interaction and region to serve as starting points for the interested ecosystem functioning. reader. Detailed regional studies of fronts will be Satellite-retrieved sea surface temperature (SST) data published elsewhere, complete with exhaustive have been used to study the Pacific Ocean fronts since bibliographies (e.g. Hickox et al., 2000; Belkin and the 1970s (e.g. Legeckis, 1978). Earlier studies have Cornillon, 2003; Belkin et al., 2004). been focused mainly on fronts associated with western boundary