Satellite information showed the region east of 136°E as dominated by eddies and filaments. Warm water found on the shelf is seen moving offshore in these eddies. Because the voyage took place in winter the warm water found on the shelf could not have been formed by local warming but was advected from oceanic regions.
The leg was planned to cut into the centre of a warm eddy. This aim was clearly achieved; water warmer than 14°C was found beyond km 90. Its association with the STF remains unclear. There is no distinct surface front, and the STF criteria which are valid for the region west of 135°E seem no longer applicable.
The most prominent feature of this leg is the very high degree of density compensated temperature and salinity variability at mid-depth. The strongest fronts (in the sense of extreme horizontal gradients) are found around an isolated sub-surface water body at km 25 below 100 m depth.