Abstract
Based on historic data of monthly means of sea surface temperatures (SST) for 24 years $(1921\~1944) $ at 23 Korean and Japanese coastal stations in the East Sea (the Japan Sea), we analyzed spatio-temporal characteristics of coastal SST and SST anomalies. The means of SST at Korean coast are higher than those at Japanese coast of the same latitudes, and the annual range of SST at Korean coast are larger than those at Japanese coast. Empirical orthogonal function analysis shows that almost all $(96\%)$ of the SST fluctuations are described by simultaneous seasonal variations. The flurtuations of SST anomalies are small in the Korea Strait and large at the boundaries between the warm and told currents in the basin. The fluctuations of SST anomalies along Korean coast are correlated each other The same is true for SST anomalies along Japanese coast. However, there is only weak correlation between the SST anomalies at Korean coast and those at Japanese coast. Empirical orthogonal function analysis shows that $27\%$ of the coastal SST anomalies in the East Sea are described by simultaneous fluctuations, and $12\%$ of them are described by alternating fluctuations between Korean and Japanese coasts.