TY - JOUR
T1 - Technical issues in modeling surface-drifter behavior on the East China Sea shelf
AU - Kako, Shin'ichiro
AU - Isobe, Atsuhiko
AU - Yoshioka, Shun
AU - Chang, Pil Hun
AU - Matsuno, Takeshi
AU - Kim, Sang Hyun
AU - Lee, Joon Soo
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors express their sincere thanks to Prof. Masahisa Kubota for his critical comments. This research was supported by the Global Research Fund (D-071) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. TM is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science through Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (#14204045, #18340143).
PY - 2010/4
Y1 - 2010/4
N2 - To investigate technical issues associated with the particle-tracking numerical models frequently used to reproduce the behavior of objects drifting in the actual ocean, the trajectories of satellite-tracked drifters released in 2003, 2004, and 2007 were reproduced using a numerical model. In particular, the wind stress driving the surface currents which carried the drifters has been computed using satellite-observed QuikSCAT/Seawinds data provided twice daily in conjunction with in-situ Ieodo-station wind data. Although it is difficult to reproduce the trajectory of a single drifter using numerical models because of the uncertainty induced by random-walk processes, the similarity between the modeled particle and observed buoy trajectories is statistically significant, except for the experiment in 2007. In general, the satellite-derived wind field modified using in situ data is likely to be able to reproduce observed drifter motion. However, it is found that the model is unable to reproduce drifter trajectories in windy 2007. The numerical modeling result demonstrates that wind-induced leeway drift prevails in drifter motion in 2007, in spite of the wind-resistant drogue attached to the drifters, and that this drift shows non-negligible spatiotemporal variability, suggesting that leeway drift is not simply proportional to wind speeds, as in previous studies have maintained.
AB - To investigate technical issues associated with the particle-tracking numerical models frequently used to reproduce the behavior of objects drifting in the actual ocean, the trajectories of satellite-tracked drifters released in 2003, 2004, and 2007 were reproduced using a numerical model. In particular, the wind stress driving the surface currents which carried the drifters has been computed using satellite-observed QuikSCAT/Seawinds data provided twice daily in conjunction with in-situ Ieodo-station wind data. Although it is difficult to reproduce the trajectory of a single drifter using numerical models because of the uncertainty induced by random-walk processes, the similarity between the modeled particle and observed buoy trajectories is statistically significant, except for the experiment in 2007. In general, the satellite-derived wind field modified using in situ data is likely to be able to reproduce observed drifter motion. However, it is found that the model is unable to reproduce drifter trajectories in windy 2007. The numerical modeling result demonstrates that wind-induced leeway drift prevails in drifter motion in 2007, in spite of the wind-resistant drogue attached to the drifters, and that this drift shows non-negligible spatiotemporal variability, suggesting that leeway drift is not simply proportional to wind speeds, as in previous studies have maintained.
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U2 - 10.1007/s10872-010-0014-z
DO - 10.1007/s10872-010-0014-z
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77951761956
VL - 66
SP - 161
EP - 174
JO - Journal of Oceanography
JF - Journal of Oceanography
SN - 0916-8370
IS - 2
ER -