Eric Holmes reaches Japan to participate in the Kuroshio Experiment.

Graduate Student Eric Holmes has arrived in Tokyo to participate in a scientific experiment. He joins a group of 17 other scientists, led by the Chief Scientist Prof. Takeyoshi Nagai (a post doctoral alumnus of our group) who will be making physical, biological and chemical measurements across the Kuroshio Front. The host institution is the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology.

Eric Holmes is now onboard R/V Natsushima with other scientists from Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, MIT, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to make measurements across the Kuroshio Front and fast moving Kuroshio current!

The main objectives of this scientific cruise are to elucidate whether the small scale turbulent dissipation in response to the mesoscale forcing, such as frontogenesis, is ubiquitous and intrinsic feature of the fronts, and to investigate the magnitude and spatial spread of dissipation sites in three-dimensional space near the Kuroshio Front, to investigate horizontal scales of distribution of nitrate across the front, and to investigate the submesoscale contrast in species compositions of zooplankton and phytoplankton across the Kuroshio Front.

The scientific cruise will last from Oct 17th to October 24th 2009 in which five detailed transects across the Kuroshio Front are planned.