• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.168-178
• /
• 2006

In recent years, an ingress of mass jellyfish into cooling water intake system causes interruption of electric power production at the Uljin nuclear power plant. Therefore, monitering and forecast on the mass ingress of marine organisms are demanded as one of the early preventing measurements. Sea water movement is a major factor on the ingress of marine organisms like Moon jellyfish which has weak self-mobile ability. When sea surface flow direction adjacent to the Uljin is the northwest, the jellyfish on the Tsushima warm currents move to the Uljin power plant. To detect the direction of sea surface warm flows, the spatial range with $25km{\times}25km$ is set up and NOAA sea surface temperature(SST) data are collected in this area. For the statistical analysis, the SST data are made as GIS point data and geostatistical analysis of ArcGIS is used. Analyzing directional semivariogram, the anisotropy of the SST point data are calculated and warm flow direction is detected. This experimental results are expected to use as an element technology for the early warning system development of mass jellyfish ingress in power plant.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.79-93
• /
• 2015

Three-dimensional structures of large ocean rings in the Gulf Stream region are investigated using the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). Numerically simulated flow structures around four selected cyclonic and anticyclonic rings are compared with two different horizontal resolutions: $1/12^{\circ}$ and $1/48^{\circ}$. The vertical distributions of Lagrangian Coherent Structures (LCSs) are analyzed using Finite Size Lyapunov Exponent (FSLE) and Okubo-Weiss parameters (OW). Curtain-shaped FSLE ridges are found in all four rings with extensions of surface ridges throughout the water columns, indicating that horizontal stirring is dominant over vertical motions. Near the high-resolution rings, many small-scale flow structures with size O(1~10) km are observed while these features are rarely found near the low-resolution rings. These small-scale structures affect the flow pattern around the rings as flow particles move more randomly in the high-resolution models. The dispersion rates are also affected by these small-scale structures as the relative horizontal dispersion coefficients are larger for the high-resolution models. The absolute vertical dispersion rates are, however, lower for the high-resolution models, because the particles tend to move along inclined eddy orbits when the resolution is low and this increases the magnitude of absolute vertical dispersion. Since relative vertical dispersion can reduce this effect from the orbital trajectories of particles, it gives a more reasonable magnitude range than absolute dispersion, and so is recommended in estimating vertical dispersion rates.

• 한국해양학회지
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.29-38
• /
• 1989

It has been believed that the circulation in the Japan Sea involves separation of current from the Korean coast and formation of a cold cyclonic gyre in the north. To explain this, a simple quasi-geostrophic linear model is considered. The model is basically of an inflow-outflow system. The local forcings, wind and air-sea heat exchange together with damping (both mechanical and thermal), are imposed upon. The results show that only the buoyancy damping due to perturbations from local thermal adjustment can cause the separation and the gyre. Various types of circulation patterns are possible depending on the intensity of the thermal forcing.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.364-374
• /
• 1994

The separation mechanism of the Tsushima Warm Current and the effects of seasonal wind stress on the separation position are studied by use of a barotropic numerical model. The grid spacing of 0.25$^{\circ}$ both in latitude and longitude is used in the model, and Hellerman and Rosenstein's wind (1983) is applied to the sea surface as seasonal wind stress. According to the model results, during winter seasons (from October to March) when northly wind is prevailing, the Tsushima Warm Current is formed by direct separation from the Kuroshio on the continental slope southwest of Kyushu. On the other hand, during summer seasons (from April to September), the Taiwan Current that flows through the Taiwan Strait seems to be the origin of the Tsushima Warm Current. The Kuroshio reaches its maximum transport during winter seasons, and the minimum during summer. The transport of the Taiwan Current shows a phase lag of about 160$^{\circ}$ relative to the Kuroshio. The transport variation of the Tsushima Warm Current agrees with that of the Kuroshio when the former is shifted by 120$^{\circ}$(about 4 months).

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.305-311
• /
• 1999

This study aims to decipher surface water mass interaction in summer in the South China Sea and East China Sea by radium isotope distribution pattern. Salinity and activity ratio of radium ($^{228}Ra/^{226}Ra$) showed gradual changes, which were adequate to apply simple two end-member mixing between Kuroshio surface water and Changjiang Dilute Water for the East China Sea and the former and Nearshore Diluted Watermass (NDW) for the South China Sea. Two tracer methods, salinity and Ra isotope ratio, were compared for East China Sea. Results showed remarkable consistency for waters near Kuroshio, however, discrepancy were noticeable after Tsushima Warm Current branching. Mixing with subsurface waters may cause the discrepancy. When mixed with subsurface waters, salts and radium isotope ratio are expected to be biased in opposite direction, i. e. prone to underestimate the fraction of less saline water in the case of salts and vice versa for Ra isotope ratio. Taking the mean values of two different results seems more realistic to estimate fraction of end-members.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.257-266
• /
• 2000

A vertically-averaged, two-dimensional version of the Princeton Ocean Model has been applied to the South Sea to simulate the circulation driven by tides and inflows/outflows across open boundaries. To incorporate both forcing properly, a two-step modeling approach is adopted, in which the tidal circulation is first simulated by specifying the tides along the open boundaries, and then both the calculated tidal currents and the observed steady mean currents are prescribed across the open boundaries. Model results show that the steady, subtidal circulation of the South Sea is different from the residual circulation due to tidal rectification, and subtidal currents become locally as strong as tidal currents. The Cheju Current entering the model domain across the Cheju Strait flows eastward in general while shifting onshore or offshore areas following local isobaths. The Tsushima Current entering across the southern boundary reaches farther to the north in the eastern vicinity of Cheju-Do as compared to that entering across other parts of the southern boundary. The Tsushima Current turns to the east, merges with the Cheju Current, and both the Cheju and Tsushima Current exit to the East Sea through the western channel of the Korea Strait. An intensification of the outflow occurs over the deep trough adjacent to the Tsushima Island, which appears to be due to the formation of the frictional boundary layer in order to remove excess positive relative vorticity generated by an increase in the layer thickness. The circulation driven by both the tidal and inflows/outflows is different from that driven by each forcing separately in coastal areas, which implies that both forcings should be considered simultaneously in the simulation of more realistic coastal circulation.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.1-18
• /
• 2023

The East Sea, one of the regions where the most rapid warming is occurring, is known to have important implications for the response of the ocean to future climate changes because it not only reacts sensitively to climate change but also has a much shorter turnover time (hundreds of years) than the ocean (thousands of years). However, the processes underlying changes in seawater characteristics at the sea's deep and abyssal layers, and meridional overturning circulation have recently been examined only after international cooperative observation programs for the entire sea allowed in-situ data in a necessary resolution and accuracy along with recent improvement in numerical modeling. In this review, previous studies on the physical characteristics of seawater at deeper parts of the East Sea, and meridional overturning circulation are summarized to identify any remaining issues. The seawater below a depth of several hundreds of meters in the East Sea has been identified as the Japan Sea Proper Water (East Sea Proper Water) due to its homogeneous physical properties of a water temperature below 1℃ and practical salinity values ranging from 34.0 to 34.1. However, vertically high-resolution salinity and dissolved oxygen observations since the 1990s enabled us to separate the water into at least three different water masses (central water, CW; deep water, DW; bottom water, BW). Recent studies have shown that the physical characteristics and boundaries between the three water masses are not constant over time, but have significantly varied over the last few decades in association with time-varying water formation processes, such as convection processes (deep slope convection and open-ocean deep convection) that are linked to the re-circulation of the Tsushima Warm Current, ocean-atmosphere heat and freshwater exchanges, and sea-ice formation in the northern part of the East Sea. The CW, DW, and BW were found to be transported horizontally from the Japan Basin to the Ulleung Basin, from the Ulleung Basin to the Yamato Basin, and from the Yamato Basin to the Japan Basin, respectively, rotating counterclockwise with a shallow depth on the right of its path (consistent with the bottom topographic control of fluid in a rotating Earth). This horizontal deep circulation is a part of the sea's meridional overturning circulation that has undergone changes in the path and intensity. Yet, the linkages between upper and deeper circulation and between the horizontal and meridional overturning circulation are not well understood. Through this review, the remaining issues to be addressed in the future were identified. These issues included a connection between the changing properties of CW, DW, and BW, and their horizontal and overturning circulations; the linkage of deep and abyssal circulations to the upper circulation, including upper water transport from and into the Western Pacific Ocean; and processes underlying the temporal variability in the path and intensity of CW, DW, and BW.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.677-697
• /
• 1995

The analysis of long- period sea level variations with tidal record data around Korea, Japan, and Russia shows that about half of the variations are due to atmospheric influences. The sea level variation by water movements is the largest in the coasts along the Tsushima Current, and becomes smaller in the distant areas. It suggests that the sea level varications are related with the Tsushima Current. The effect of sea level variations to ocean circulation has been studied with a numerical model allowing barotropic sea level fluctuations, like the result with GCM (Semtner) model by Pang et al.(1993), the present model also shows that waters basically flow along isobaths over the last China Sea after geostyophic adjustment around Taiwan. However, barotropic sea level fluctuation makes the basic circulation in the Yellow Sea, which waters flow into the central Yellow Sea and out along the west coast of the Korean Peninsula. Besides this, barotropic sea level fluctuation makes long period waves over the shelf area as the Kuroshio varies. By the waves, the basic circulation in the Yellow Sea is disturbed, so that the flow pattern of oppositely flowing into the Yellow Sea along the west roast of the Korean Peninsula appears. In the Yellow Sea circulation, it seems that northwest winds strengthen the basic circulat ion In winter, and southeast winds strengthen the disturbed circulation in summer. Another point appeared by the long period wave is that the Tsushima Current possibly originates in different areas. There have been two opposing argues on the area in which the Tsushima Current originates the southwest sea of Kyushu Island and the adjacent sea of Taiwan. Through this study, we found that both of them seem to be important areas for the origin of the Tsushima Current, and one of them is possibly strengthened by long period waves. The long period waves given by the variation of the Kuroshio Current in the adjacent sea of Taiwan propagate to the Korea Strait as forced waves. The wave continuously propagates to the last Sea through the eastern channel, but reflects in the western channel due to bottom topography. The reflected waves propagate southwestward along the last China Sea as free waves and determine the sea level variations with forced waves.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.351-373
• /
• 2019

The cold eddies around the Ulleung Basin in the East Sea were identified from satellite altimeter sea level data using the Winding-Angle method from 1993 to 2015. Among the cold eddies, the Dokdo Cold Eddies (DCEs), which were formed at the first meandering trough of the East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) and were pinched off to the southwest from the eastward flow, were classified and their migration patterns were analyzed. The vertical structures of water temperature, salinity, and flow velocity near the DCE center were also examined using numerical simulation and observation data provided by the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model and the National Institute of Fisheries Science, respectively. A total of 112 DCEs were generated for 23 years. Of these, 39 DCEs migrated westward and arrived off the east coast of Korea. The average travel distance was 250.9 km, the average lifespan was 93 days, and the average travel speed was 3.5 cm/s. The other 73 DCEs had moved to the east or had hovered around the generated location until they disappeared. At 50-100 m depth under the DCE, water temperature and salinity (T < $5^{\circ}C$, S < 34.1) were lower than those of ambient water and isotherms made a dome shape. Current faster than 10 cm/s circulates counterclockwise from the surface to 300 m depth at 38 km away from the center of DCE. After the EKWC separates from the coast, it flows eastward and starts to meander near Ulleungdo. The first trough of the meander in the east of Ulleungdo is pushed deep into the southwest and forms a cold eddy (DCE), which is shed from the meander in the south of Ulleungdo. While a DCE moves westward, it circumvents the Ulleung Warm Eddy (UWE) clockwise and follows U shape path toward the east coast of Korea. When the DCE arrives near the coast, the EKWC separates from the coast at the south of DCE and circumvents the DCE. As the DCE near the coast weakens and extinguishes about 30 days later after the arrival, the EKWC flows northward along the coast recovering its original path. The DCE steadily transports heat and salt from the north to the south, which helps to form a cold water region in the southwest of the Ulleung Basin and brings positive vorticity to change the separation latitude and path of the EKWC. Some of the DCEs moving to the west were merged into a coastal cold eddy to form a wide cold water region in the west of Ulleung Basin and to create a elongated anticlockwise circulation, which separated the UWE in the north from the EKWC in the south.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.225-242
• /
• 2012

This is the first attempt to produce simultaneous surface current field from satellite altimeter data for the entire East Sea and to provide surface current information to users with formal description. It is possible to estimate surface geostrophic current field in near real-time because satellite altimeters and coastal tide gauges supply sea level data for the whole East Sea. Strength and location of the major currents and meso-scale eddies can be identified from the estimated surface geostrophic current field. The mean locations of major surface currents were explicated relative to topographic, ocean-surface and undersea features with schematic representation of surface circulation. In order to demonstrate the practical use of this surface current information, exemplary descriptions of annual, seasonal and monthly mean surface geostrophic current distributions were presented. In order to objectively classify surface circulation patterns in the East Sea, empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis was performed on the estimated 16-year (1993-2008) surface current data. The first mode was associated with intensification or weakening of the East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) flowing northward along the east coast of Korea and of the anti-cyclonic circulation southwest of Yamato Basin. The second mode was associated with meandering paths of the EKWC in the southern East Sea with wavelength of 300 km. The first and second modes had inter-annual variations. The East Sea surface circulation was classified as inertial boundary current pattern, Tsushima Warm Current pattern, meandering pattern, and Offshore Branch pattern by the time coefficient of the first two EOF modes.