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Mooring, CTD, and ADCP observations were made in 2012 in and around the Toyama Trough (TT) cutting across a continental shelf along the Japanese coast of the Japan Sea between Noto Peninsula (NP) and Sado Island (SI) to investigate spatiotemporal characteristics of path transition of the coastal branch of the Tsushima Warm Current (CBTWC). Around SI, downstream of the TT boundary, a wavelike alongshore current perturbation, accompanied by sea level rise, was observed. This perturbation occurred after the seasonal amplification of the CBTWC around the NP on the upstream boundary of the TT. This process was delineated by the results of numerical experiments performed with a two-layer model using idealized topography. The model showed that a current path of the CBTWC shifted from alongshore mode to offshore mode bridged over the TT in association with the lee eddy development behind the NP toward the SI over the TT. This lee eddy is generated by positive vorticity induced over topographic discontinuity between the continental shelf off the northern coast of the NP and deeper region of the TT. The model indicated the period of eddy formation is 60–90 days if the volume transport is 1 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1), whereas the observations showed the formation period was only 47 days at 1.2 Sv of volume transport. To explain this discrepancy, temporal variation of the CBTWC, vortex supply from preexisting eddies, or eddies caused by the scattering of coastal-trapped waves were suggested as new processes that accelerate the growth rate of the lee eddy.

Coastal set-net fisheries have been frequently damaged by the occurrence of sudden current (known as kyucho) in the Japan Sea. In this study, a high-resolution coastal ocean model is developed to provide a means to predict this stormy current. The 1.5 km-mesh model nested in a regional ocean data assimilation system is driven by mesoscale atmospheric conditions at 1-hour intervals. The modeled results show rapid changes of the coastal current along the San-in Coast, on the eastern side of the Tango Peninsula, and around the Noto Peninsula and Sado Island, mostly associated with strong wind events. These modeled coastal water responses are consistent with in-situ velocity measurements. The simulation also shows that the vortex separated from the Tango Peninsula frequently grows to a bay-scale anticyclonic eddy in Wakasa Bay. Evidently, the coastal branch of the Tsushima Warm Current becomes unstable due to a strong meteorological disturbance resulting in the generation of this harmful eddy.

Spatiotemporal current variations of coastal-trapped waves (CTWs) were investigated by using a current dataset obtained from daily fishing operations west of the Noto Peninsula (NTP), Japan. Cross-shore lines located in southern, middle, and northern parts of the west coast of the NTP were designed to detect characteristics of CTWs with a time interval of a few days and about 5-km resolution in the cross-shore direction. Accuracy validation by using moored current meter data and sea level data demonstrated that the established dataset expresses accurate variations with periods of several days. The generation and propagation of a CTW event associated with a low-pressure zone passing north of the study area in late May 2010 were analyzed. Along-shore currents with the coast on the right strengthened in every line simultaneously with the domination of the southerly wind, and then weakened in order from south to north simultaneously with weakening of the southerly wind. Although the along-shore currents of the CTWs linearly decreased heading offshore along the south and middle lines, these currents broadened within about 50 km from the coast along the north line, with small variations in the cross-shelf direction, with an increase in shelf width. These generation, propagation and current structure characteristics are clarified and interpreted by the characteristics of the estimated possible CTWs west of the NTP and numerical experiments, which reproduce wind-induced freely propagating CTWs. A change in the propagation characteristics and the structure of the CTWs associated with bottom topography indicates the possibility that adjustments can occur on the order of a few dozen kilometers.