Note: Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- 1 Oceanic fronts and jets around Japan: a review -- Abstract -- 1Oceanic fronts and their roles in climate -- 2A table of metrics -- 2.1 The dynamical properties of oceanic fronts -- 2.2 The metric table -- 3Kuroshio fronts -- 3.1 Kuroshio Extension front (KE front) -- 3.1.1 Metrics used to locate the KE front -- 3.1.2 The KE front and its impact on the atmosphere -- 3.2 Kuroshio south of Japan -- 3.3 Kuroshio along the shelf break of the East China Sea -- 3.4 Comparison to the Gulf Stream, Agulhas Current, and Antarctic Circumpolar Current -- 4Kuroshio-Oyashio confluence region -- 5Fronts in the subtropical North Pacific -- 5.1 Northern, Southern, and Eastern subtropical fronts -- 5.2 Hawaiian Lee Countercurrent -- 6Fronts in coastal and marginal seas -- 6.1 Tidal fronts of the Seto Inland Sea -- 6.2 Japan Sea subpolar front -- 7Summary and concluding remarks -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix -- Kuroshio Extension -- Kuroshio south of Japan -- Kuroshio along the shelf break of the East China Sea -- Gulf Stream -- Agulhas Current and Agulhas Return Current -- Antarctic Circumpolar Current-Subantarctic front (ACC-SAF) -- Kuroshio-Oyashio confluence region -- Northern, Southern, and Eastern Subtropical fronts (NSTF, SSTF, and ESTF) -- Hawaiian Lee Countercurrent -- Seto Inland Sea tidal front -- Japan Sea subpolar front -- FRA-JCOPE2 -- References -- 2 Climatological mean features and interannual to decadal variability of ring formations in the Kuroshio Extension region -- Abstract -- 1Introduction -- 2Data and methods -- 2.1 Datasets -- 2.2 Method for detecting a ring formation -- 3Climatological mean features -- 4Interannual to decadal variability -- 5Summary and discussion -- Acknowledgments -- References. , 3 Marine atmospheric boundary layer and low-level cloud responses to the Kuroshio Extension front in the early summer of 2012: three-vessel simultaneous observations and numerical simulations -- Abstract -- 1Introduction -- 2Intensive observation campaign -- 3Three-vessel simultaneous observation -- 3.1 Weather condition -- 3.2 Cloud base height -- 3.3 Downward longwave radiation and water vapor -- 4Model experiments -- 4.1 Experiment design -- 4.2 Simulation results -- 5Summary -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix: Simulations by the AR-WRF -- References -- 4 Heat and salt budgets of the mixed layer around the Subarctic Front of the North Pacific Ocean -- Abstract -- 1Introduction -- 2Data -- 3Method -- 3.1 Heat budget -- 3.2 Salinity budget -- 4Results -- 4.1 OML spatial distribution and properties -- 4.2 Seasonal cycle of the heat budget -- 4.2.1 Budget averaged in a large domain and spatial distribution -- 4.2.2 Budget comparison between north and south of the SAF -- 4.3 Salinity budget seasonal cycle -- 4.4 Temperature and salinity contributions to buoyancy loss -- 5Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 5 Impact of downward heat penetration below the shallow seasonal thermocline on the sea surface temperature -- Abstract -- 1Introduction -- 2Data and methods -- 3Heat penetration depth in the subsurface layer -- 3.1 Relationship between Qnet and rate of change of HC in the vertical dimension -- 3.2 Definition of heat penetration depth -- 4Results -- 4.1 Seasonal changes in surface and subsurface temperatures -- 4.2 Relationship between Qnet_m and d(HCm)/dt and the role of the subsurface layer -- 4.3 Relationship between Qnet_m and d(HCm)/dt throughout the North Pacific Ocean -- 5Summary and discussion -- Acknowledgments -- Appendices -- Appendix 1: Monthly horizontal 5° × 5° gridded Argo profiles. , Appendix 2: Horizontal heat transport by Ekman transport and the geostrophic current and their relative importance to the downward Qnet in the North Pacific -- Appendix 3: Seasonal changes in temperature and HPD from Argo float data -- Appendix 4: Relationship between Qnet and dHC/dt based on OAFlux -- References -- 6 Early summertime interannual variability in surface and subsurface temperature in the North Pacific -- Abstract -- 1Introduction -- 2Observational data and model -- 2.1 MOAA-GPV -- 2.2 North Pacific OFES -- 3Results -- 3.1 Observed variability -- 3.2 Simulated variability -- 4Discussion -- 4.1 Possible mechanism -- 4.2 Possibility of air-sea interactions -- 4.3 Horizontal distribution of SST and SSS difference -- 5Summary -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 7 Local wind effect on the Kuroshio path state off the southeastern coast of Kyushu -- Abstract -- 1Introduction -- 2Observational evidence -- 2.1 Data and processing -- 2.1.1 Kuroshio path position data from MIRC -- 2.1.2 Sea surface geostrophic velocity and wind stress fields -- 2.2 Results of data analyses -- 2.2.1 Time series of Kuroshio small meander events 1982-2011 -- 2.2.2 Monthly mean fields of sea surface geostrophic velocity and wind stress -- 3Theoretical considerations -- 3.1 Method to approach the small meander formation process -- 3.2 Dynamics in the surface Ekman layer -- 3.3 Response of the jet to Ekman pumping: a two-layer quasi-geostrophic model -- 3.4 Small meander formation process: an approach from the path equation -- 4Numerical experiments -- 4.1 Model description and experiment design -- 4.2 Results of numerical experiments -- 5Conclusions and discussion -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix -- Method used to derive the sea surface geostrophic velocity dataset -- References. , 8 Unusually rapid intensification of Typhoon Man-yi in 2013 under preexisting warm-water conditions near the Kuroshio front south of Japan -- Abstract -- Sec1 -- 2Storm overview, data used, and the model -- 2.1 Overview of Typhoon Man-yi (2013) -- 2.1.1 History -- 2.1.2 Satellite observations -- 2.2 Data -- 2.3 Model -- 2.3.1 Atmosphere model -- 2.3.2 Ocean surface-wave model -- 2.3.3 Multilayer ocean model -- 2.3.4 Model topography -- 2.3.5 Exchange processes -- 2.4 Experimental design -- 3Results -- 3.1 Sea surface temperature -- 3.2 Results of simulated track, intensity and structural change of a storm -- 3.2.1 Track and intensity -- 3.2.2 Mesovortex and rapid intensification -- 3.2.3 Axisymmetric inner-core structure of Man-yi -- 3.2.4 Rapid intensification, preexisting oceanic conditions, and sea surface cooling -- 3.3 Torrential rainfall -- 4Discussion -- 4.1 Atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers and air-sea interactions -- 4.2 Poleward shift of the location of maximum intensity -- 4.3 Atmospheric environment -- 5Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- References -- 9 Atlantic-Pacific asymmetry of subsurface temperature change and frontal response of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current for the recent three decades -- Abstract -- 1Introduction -- 2Data and method -- 3Results -- 3.1 Trends of temperature and inter-basin asymmetry in the subsurface layer -- 3.2 Patterns of meridional shift of the ACC and temperature change -- 4Discussion -- 4.1 Mechanism of the meridional shift of ACC -- 4.2 Changes in wind system and SST gradient -- 5Summary and conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix: Climatological fronts of OFES -- References.