Abstract
For preserving biodiversity and marine ecosystem on the coral coasts around Ryukyu Islands, a role played by the adjacent Kuroshio warm current is anticipated to be essential for larval and nutrient transport. In order to better understand dynamics and mixing between the Kuroshio and the islands, we develop a detailed oceanic downscaling model in a doubly nested configuration using ROMS at horizontal resolutions down to 1km, forced by the assimilative JCOPE2 and JMA-GSM/MSM. A model-data comparison is conducted with the field observation and satellite altimetry data to demonstrate a quite close agreement. According to a diagnostic eddy heat flux analysis, the dominance of the negative vorticity is substantial in emergence of submesoscale anticyclonic eddies and the associated heat transport from the Kuroshio.
