Abstract
Vertical structure of mesoscale eddies is key to the eddy-induced
heat/material transport that further affects the climate and marine
ecosystem. This study explores the vertical structure of mesoscale
eddies in the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension region (KOE) and its underlying
dynamics. By applying the hierarchical ascending classification to the
observational and reanalysis datasets, we classify mesoscale eddies with
three distinct kinds of vertical structures. Each kind of eddies
exhibits clear spatial aggregation along a distinct zonal band. Eddies
have core depths of 100-300 m in the northern part of the KOE and core
depths of 300-500 m and 0-100 m in the southern. The eddy splitting or
merging does not introduce new kind of eddy vertical structure but
causes large intra-kind variability. The different kinds of eddy
vertical structures can be partially accounted for by the inference from
the baroclinic instabilities at the eddy generation sites.