Submesoscale Processes in the Kuroshio Loop Current: Roles in Energy Cascade and Salt and Heat Transports

Abstract The Kuroshio Loop Current (KLC) is an important form of Kuroshio intrusion into the northeastern South China Sea (NESCS), which has significant influences on dynamical and biogeochemical processes in the NESCS. Recent studies suggested that the KLC is a hot spot of submesoscale processes (submesoscales) with spatiotemporal scales of O (1–10) km and O (1–10) days, but submesoscales' roles in energy cascade and salt and heat transports remain obscure. Here, we investigate this issue through analyzing outputs from a 1/48° simulation. The kinetic energy exchange rate between submesoscale and larger‐scale processes (KER) is overall positive in the KLC region, which suggests the dominance of forward cascade. The magnitude of KER is comparable with the temporal change rate of larger‐scale kinetic energy in the upper 200 m. We also find that magnitude and direction of KER are closely associated with strain rate and horizontal divergence of background flows, respectively. In addition, the KLC region shows elevated submesoscale salinity and heat diffusivities with magnitudes reaching O (10 2 ) m 2 s −1 . During the KLC period, horizontal mixing by submesoscales can transport 0.90 × 10 13 kg salt and 0.71 × 10 20 J heat westward into the NESCS interior, which are an order of magnitude larger than those caused by the mesoscale eddy shedding from the KLC. These results suggest that submesoscales play important roles not only in energy cascade but also in salt and heat transports in the KLC region. Therefore, the roles of submesoscales should be taken into account when studying energy, salt, and heat budgets in the NESCS.