Collaborative agreement for a research project

Project Title: Mesoscale Eddies in the Japan/East Sea: Their Water Mass Structure, Dynamics, and Role in the Basin Scale Circulation

Collaborating parties:

Pacific Oceanological Institute (POI)
Far Eastern Branch Russian Academy of Sciences 43
Baltiyskaya Street Vladivostok 690041 Russia
Contact: Dr. Vyacheslav Lobanov, Deputy Director
Phone: 7-4232-312377
Fax: 7-4232-312573
E-mail: lobanov%dana1@poi.marine.su

University of Washington
School of Oceanography
Seattle, WA 98195 USA
Contact: Dr. Stephen Riser, Professor
Phone: 1-206-543-1187
Fax: 1-206-543-0275
E-mail: riser@ocean.washington.edu

Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Physical Oceanography Research Division
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0230, USA
Contact: Dr. Lynne Talley, Professor
Phone: 1-619-534-6610
Fax: 1-619-534-0704
email: ltalley@ucsd.edu

Duration:

1 April 1998 - 30 September 2000

Objective and Interactions:

This collaborative project is a part of studies implementing under the international CREAMS-II program and the Japan/East Sea program initiated by the ONR. The objective of these programs is to understand and predict the circulation of the JES with particular emphasis on the upper ocean mesoscale circulation. Problems to be addressed include the branching of the Tsushima Warm Current, dynamic stability and subduction along the subpolar front, the seasonal evolution of the surface mixed layer, surface/deep ocean coupling, and the basin-scale circulation. Central to understanding all of these problems is a basin-wide hydrographic survey which will sample temperature, salinity, oxygen, nutrient chemistry, and some tracers from the surface to the bottom. The ship(s) will also carry a hull-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) to measure the currents over the upper 350 m of the ocean. Nested within the basin-scale circulation is a very active eddy field. The eddies may be found in the entire basin and have a variety of presumed sources including: 1) Bottom topography; 2) Air/sea interaction; 3) Dynamic instabilities of the sub-polar front; and 4) Meandering and looping of the various branches of the Tsushima Warm Current. Some of the eddies are advected about, while others are apparently trapped to bottom topographic features such as the Yamato Rise.

The objective of this collaborative project is to conduct a more focussed study of the eddy field in the Japan/East Sea utilizing a) a few days of dedicated sampling in an eddy within the large-scale survey cruise and b) satellite remote sensing of the ocean temperature and color fields. The work will be carried out in Vladivostok, Russia, at sea in the Japan/East Sea, and during collaborative visits to the United States. The POI party will implement the following tasks:

1. Participate in the large-scale survey cruises during summer 1999 and winter 2000.
2. Provide and analyze satellite AVHRR data at high resolution (LAC) for the Japan/East Sea.
3. Analyze historical satellite (NOAA AVHRR) and hydrographic data to estimate typical parameters of the eddies and location prior to the cruise.
4. Make the data available to shipboard researchers in near-real time to guide sampling within the eddies of interest.
5. Collaborate with U.S. researchers in the processing, analysis, and publication of the data.

Funding:

To implement these tasks the following fund will be provided through the University of Washington:

FY98 FY99 FY00

$5000 $25000 $25000

This fund covers satellite and hydrographic data processing and analysis, materials and equipment purchasing, preparations for cruises, travel expenses to scientific symposia and collaborative visits to USA.

Institute overhead should not exceed 16%. This fund does not include sea-going expenses for POI researcher to participate in joint cruises.

Additional funds may be allocated to cover expenses for sea-going activity, training, equipment and visits under mutual agreement of the parties.

The funds should be transferred to the POI account, or to the account designated by contact person in case of consulting fee or travel support payments.

Sharing:

The Russian side will provide:

1) Their ground station to download the LAC satellite data;

2) Historical satellite and hydrographic data to frame the problem and determine the representativeness of the cruise time frame;

3) Other possible financial support under the auspices of The World Ocean program of the Russian Federation and grants from the Russian Fund for Basic Research. These grants are pending.

4) Implement a preliminary short hydrographic cruise to estimate the water mass structure and eddy parameters in the NW Japan/East Sea, prior to the basin-scale cruises described above.

Intellectual Property Rights:

All data acquired at sea will be the joint property of the participating investigators, regardless of national affiliation. All PIs will share jointly in the analysis of the data.

Program Officers statement:

I strongly support this proposal which makes an important contribution to the overall ONR Japan/East Sea Departmental Research Initiative. The work directly supports ONR IFO key opportunities matrix elements 97-005 [Coastal Oceanography] and 97-007 [Ocean Related Databases]. The Japan/East Sea field program in its present form lacks a focussed eddy study, and thus this proposal fills an important void in the scientific content. Some of the eddies to be studied may be in the Russian EEZ. Access to the Russian EEZ is extremely unlikely without the full cooperation of Russian scientists and the use of a Russian research vessel.

International Sponsor Comment:

Stable mesoscale eddies with a long life span represent a new finding for the central and northwestern Japan/East Sea oceanography. Understanding their dynamics and kinematics is of particular interest for the Russian Far Eastern Areas and has a high priority for regional and federal funding. Preliminary analysis suggests that the eddies are a key phenomena in the processes of basin scale fluxes and water mass formation. However, at the present time the Pacific Oceanological Institute can not provide sufficient resources to implement the necessary seagoing experiments nor to complete the analysis of hydrographic and satellite data already collected. An opportunity to collaborate with the U.S. researchers through the ONR JES DRI and NICOP is vitally important to the POI. This would help to continue the POI studies under the Russian National Research Program "Comprehensive Investigations of Oceans and Seas, Arctic and Antarctic" (projects 05.08.01, Far Eastern Seas; WESTPAC 01.06.09, Fronts and Eddies; and 01.06.04, Satellite Oceanography) and Federal Program "Integration."

Signed for POI FER RAS

Professor Victor A.Akulichev

Signed for U.Washington

Professor Stephen Riser

Signed for SIO

Professor Lynne Talley