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Hydrology, Ecology, and Environment of Kuroshio Waters

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The Kuroshio Power Plant

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Energy ((LNEN,volume 15))

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Abstract

Taiwan’s Kuroshio and Florida’s Gulf Stream are both referred to as Western Intensified Flows because they both increase in velocity as they progress westward, which, as indicated by Stommel [1], is caused by variation of the Coriolis force with latitude. In both cases, the atmospheric circulation is recognized as the major driving force behind this increase. In both the Atlantic (for the Gulf Stream) and the Pacific (for the Kuroshio), the atmospheric circulation is established through a western wind (i.e., blowing from west to east) between 30°N and 45°N and an eastern wind between 15°N and 30°N. This clockwise vortex (or gyre) extrudes to the west to enhance the strength of the current along the western shores, thus creating the current. These two circulatory currents in the northern Hemisphere are referred to as Geostrophic Currents [2, p. 193], striking a balance among three forces: flow momentum of the current, the Coriolis force, and static pressure due to sea level difference. The Coriolis force and static pressure are both induced by the reaction to the flow momentum, which accordingly must be sufficiently large to support these two forces. This indicates that the force to drive Kuroshio shall be extraordinary large to maintain the large momentum required to not only balance the other two forces but also to counter act the friction loss occurred in such a large-scale current. This also explains why the mass flow rate of Gulf Stream increases significantly (up to three times larger) when it reaches its northern boundary [2, p. 513].

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    Falin Chen

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Chen, F. (2013). Hydrology, Ecology, and Environment of Kuroshio Waters. In: The Kuroshio Power Plant. Lecture Notes in Energy, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00822-6_1

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