Scientific Researches | Zhentao Hu’s research on the subsurface anticyclonic eddy in the eastern Indian Ocean revealed by underwater glider was published in JGR: Oceans
Date:2022/02/28

Recently, Zhentao Hu, the postgraduate student of Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Oceanography (SJTU-SOO), published a research paper titled “A Large Subsurface Anticyclonic Eddy in the Eastern Equatorial Indian Ocean” as the first author in the authoritative international Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans.

 

The paper revealed a subsurface anticyclonic eddy in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean based on multi-platform hydrological observation including underwater glider observation, and analyzed its hydrographic characteristics, origin and generation mechanism. The first author affiliation of the paper was Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the co-correspondence authors were Feng Zhou, the double-hired professor of SJTU-SOO, and Xiao Ma, the doctor of Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources. The co-authors also included Yingyu Peng, Di Tian, Qicheng Meng, Dingyong Zeng, Zenghong Liu, Beifeng Zhou and Hongliang Li.

 

Subsurface eddies are pervasive in the ocean, and play an important role in marine mass transport and energy dissipation. They have relatively weak or no surface signatures, so they are more likely revealed through in-situ observations. The paper revealed a large subsurface anticyclonic eddy (SAE) in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean (EEIO), and analyzed the evolutionary process and hydrographic characteristics based on multi-platform observation with underwater glider as the core. Results show that the warm, saline and oxygen-rich SAE was characterized by tilted lens structures. The SAE was located in the thermocline and had a radius slightly greater than 250 km, and the velocity field of the SAE was subsurface intensified.

Water-mass tracing analysis indicates that the SAE shifted westward along 4°N with a mean propagation speed of 0.18 m/s from the northwest coast of Sumatra Island. The hydrographic characteristics of the SAE are similar to those of the strong Equatorial Undercurrent, it is speculated that the SAE was probably generated by the north branch flow as the eastward undercurrent reached Sumatra Island. Both lateral shear of undercurrent and conservation of potential vorticity were attributed to the formation of the observed SAE.

 

Link to the paper:

https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JC018130

 

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