Simulation of wind-induced near-inertial oscillations in a mixed layer near the east coast of Korea in the East/Japan Sea

Abstract

Using a simple damped slab model, it was possible to show that a local wind induced 88% (15 of 17) of the near-inertial oscillations (NIO) observed in the mixed layer near the east coast of Korea from 1999 to 2004. The model, however, overestimated the energy level in about two-thirds of the simulated cases, because the slab model was forced with winds whose characteristic period was shorter than the damping time scale of the model at 1.5 d. At the observation site, due to typhoons and orographic effects, high-frequency wind forcing is quite common, as is the overestimation of the energy level in the slab model results. In short, a simple slab model with a damping time-scale of about 1.5 d would be enough to show that the local wind was the main energy source of the near-inertial energy in this area, but the model could not be used to accurately estimate the amount of the work done by the wind to the mixed layer.