Analysis and Model Simulation of Wind Convergence over the Sea of Japan

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Wu, P. | Kawamura, H. | Kimura, F.

Affiliations: Earth Observation Research Center, NASDA, Roppongi 1-9-9, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032, Japan | Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies, Faculty of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan | Institute of Geoscience, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-0006, Japan

Abstract: In the winter, the wind system over the Sea of Japan strongly affects the weather of the Japan islands. In this paper, wind distributions over the Sea of Japan during cold-air outbreaks observed by the NASA scatterometer were analyzed. Strong northwesterly to westerly winds of 15 to 20 m/s were observed off Vladivostok and off the Korea Peninsula, respectively. A weak wind region, in which the wind speed is less than 9 m/s, is seen downwind of the mountains and extends more than 200 km. A strong wind convergence zone was formed in the further lee of the weak wind region. Numerical experiments using a three-dimensional mesoscale model are performed to compare the wind distribution observed by NSCAT. The results show that the simulated winds agree well with those observed by NSCAT except for the intensity of the convergence.

Keywords: NASA scatterometer, ocean wind, numerical experiment

Journal: Journal of Visualization, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 99-105, 1999