Near-Surface Frontal Zone Trapping and Deep Upward Propagation of Internal Wave Energy in the Japan/East Sea

The full-depth current structure in the Japan/East Sea was investigated using direct velocity measurements performed with lowered and shipboard acoustic current Doppler profilers. Rotary spectral analysis was used to investigate the three-dimensional energy distribution as well as wave polarization with respect to vertical wavenumbers, yielding information about the net energy propagation direction. Highly energetic near-inertial downward-propagating waves were found in localized patches along the southern edge of the subpolar front. Between 500- and 2500-m depth, the basin average energy propagation was found to be upward, with the maximum of relative difference between upward- and downward-propagating energy lying at about 1500-m depth. This difference was most pronounced in the southeastern part of the basin.