Comparison of Numerical Simulations and Field Measurements of Current Flow in The Tokara Strait

摘要

Both numerical simulations and field measurements of ocean currents in the Tokara Strait are analyzed in this work. The Kuroshio Current flows through this strait and an ongoing ocean current turbine device is under development to harness its energy. The question of where to best site the turbine motivates this work. Field observations of ocean currents were made using ADCP instruments for time durations in 2016 and 2017. Similarly, numerical simulations of ocean currents for 3-month periods in 2016 and 2017 which overlap the field observations time durations are presented. The simulations were produced using a 3rd level nested JCOPE-T-Tokara500 model. Analysis of the data shows the ability of the numerical model to match the observational data on a statistical basis using histograms and qq-plots. The complexity of the Kuroshio path meandering is discussed in this context as the simulation results match the observations well for the Kuroshio North Path however not for the South Path.