• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.91-109
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• 2022

The ocean is a significant sink for atmospheric anthropogenic CO₂, absorbing one-third of the total CO₂ emitted by human activities. In return, oceans have experienced significant declines in seawater pH and the aragonite saturation state also called ocean acidification. This study evaluates the distribution of aragonite saturation state, an indicator to assess the potential threat from ocean acidification, by combining newly obtained data from the west coast of South Korea with previous datasets covering the Yellow Sea, East Sea, northern South China Sea, and southeast coast of South Korea. In general, offshore waters absorb atmospheric CO₂; however, most of the collected water samples show aragonite oversaturation. On the southeast coast, the aragonite saturation state was significantly affected by river discharge and associated variables, such as freshwater input with nutrients, seasonal stratification, biological carbon fixation, and bacterial remineralization. In summer, hypoxia and mixing with relatively acidic freshwater made the Jinhae and Gwangyang Bays undersaturated with respect to aragonite, possibly threatening marine organisms with CaCO₃ shells. However, widespread aragonite undersaturation was not observed on the west coast, which receives considerable river water discharge. In addition, occasional upwelling events may have worsened the ocean acidification in the southwestern part of the East Sea. These results highlight the importance of investigating site-specific ocean acidification processes in coastal waters. Along with the above-mentioned seasonal factors, the dissolution of atmospheric CO₂ and the deposition of atmospheric acidic substances will continue to reduce the aragonite saturation state in Korean waters. To protect marine ecosystems and resources, an ocean acidification monitoring program should be established for Korean waters.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.473-490
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• 2015

There are diverse sea areas within the coverage of GOCI which is observed around the Korea at one-hour intervals. It includes not only very clear ocean of East Sea, but also extremely turbid waters of the Yangtze River estuary. In this study, we analyzed the different optical characteristics of various sea areas using absorption coefficients of phytoplankton, Suspended Particulate Matter(SPM), Dissolved Organic Matter(DOM). Totally 959 sets of bio-optical and marine environmental data were obtained from 2009 to 2014 around the sea area of Korea. The East Sea, South Sea, East China Sea and offshore part of Yellow Sea showed similar pattern having high levels of contribution of phytoplankton and DOM. On the other hands, the coastal part of Mokpo and Gyeonggi Bay showed opposite pattern having high levels of contribution of SPM and DOM. As a result of the algorithm performance for chlorophyll-a(Chl-a) and SPM, Chl-a is mostly overestimated and SPM is mainly tended to be underestimated. Large amount of errors are induced by the SPM rather than the chl-a and DOM. These errors are primarily founded in the coastal waters having relatively high levels of $a_{SPM}$ contribution of more than 60%.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.240-252
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• 2005

The relationships between wave and wind around the Korean Peninsula have been analyzed with the data from the buoys moored at five stations (Dugjug-do, Chilbal-do, Geomoon -do, Geoje-do, Donghae) by Korea Meteorological Administration. Generally, the relationship between wave and wind is the highest at the stations in the West Sea and the lowest at the stations in the South Sea, and the middle at the station in the East Sea. The characteristics shown at each station are as follows. Highest wave is developed at Chilbal-do with strong northwesterly wind in winter because the sea is opened in the wind direction and wave is amplified by shoaling effect. At Chilbal-do, wave directions coincide with wind directions relatively well. On the other hand, waves are not fully developed at Dugjug-do in winter due to limited fetch since the sea is blocked by Hwanghae-do in the northwest direction. The limitation in fetch is more serious at the stations in the South Sea. In the South Sea, the direction of dominant northerly wind is blocked by land so that wave heights are small even with very strong northerly wind. In the South Sea, whatever wind direction is, waves dominantly come in the direction from the East China Sea, which are from the south at Geomoon-do and the southwest at Geoje-do. At these directions, waves are coming even with weak wind. At the station in the East Sea, waves are highly developed due to vast area, but not so high as in Chilbal-do because wind and wave directions do not coincide in many cases. As shown, wind direction is important in the wave development as well as wind speed. The reason is that the fetch is determined by wind direction. In the case of long-lasted wind with fixed direction at Chilbal-do and Dugjug-do, wave directions are well coincident with wind directions and wave heights increase with response time, which is the duration between the highest wind and wave. However, in the case of disagreement between wind and wave directions at the station in the East Sea, wave heights do not increase as highly as at Chilbal-do and Dugjug-do in spite of strong wind and longer response time. The results show us that waves are highly developed with strong wind, long fetch, and long duration, and also show that wave development ratios are different at different stations due to environmental factors such as the direction towards sea or land, bottom topography, and the scales of adjacent seas.