POSTER SESSION 2
10:30–12:30, Tuesday, September 15
Poster Session | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Schedule at a Glance
ABSTRACT 1299 | POSTER 210
HIGH-RESOLUTION SWOT ALTIMETRY AND OCEAN COLOUR OBSERVATIONS OF THE ISLAND MASS EFFECT IN THE KUROSHIO CURRENT
The Island Mass Effect (IME), where currents interact with island and seamount to drive upwelling and biological production, plays a key role in supporting fisheries in oligotrophic waters. IMEs are increasingly recognized as ecological hotspots where fine-scale physical processes, including turbulent mixing, frontal instabilities, and topographic flow disruption, enhance lower trophic level productivity and may support fish recruitment and fisheries yield. In the Tokara Strait, where the Kuroshio Current flows over islands and seamounts, we combine SWOT satellite altimetry with MODIS, Sentinel-3 OLCI, and hourly 250-m GOCI-II geostationary ocean color data to examine physical and biological signatures of the IME. All ocean color and thermal observations are time-matched to SWOT overpasses, enabling chlorophyll-a and SST fields to be interpreted directly alongside SWOT sea surface height to resolve bloom timing and persistence in island wakes. SWOT, the first satellite altimeter to deliver two-dimensional swath measurements of sea surface height, with two 50-km swaths on either side of the nadir and a native resolution of 250 m, provides a transformative capability for detecting submesoscale features and frontal structures previously unresolved by conventional altimetry. SWOT observations reveal intensified surface flow gradients and submesoscale activity downstream of topographic features, coinciding with SST cooling and elevated chlorophyll-a concentrations captured by polar-orbiting and geostationary ocean color sensors. This study demonstrates how next-generation altimetry and high-frequency ocean color observations can resolve fine-scale current-topography interactions that trigger localized phytoplankton blooms, offering a mechanistic pathway linking submesoscale physical processes, enhanced biological productivity, and fisheries productivity in western boundary current systems.
Shiliang Shan, Royal Military College of Canada; Queen’s University Canada, [email protected], https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8889-9668
Daisuke Hasegawa, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, [email protected]
Poster Session | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Schedule at a Glance
