• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.477-483
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• 1987

We constructed the tidal chart of $M_2$ tide in the East Sea (Japan Sea) by an objective method. The sea level elevations at coastal stations are specified as Dirichlet boundary conditions, and the tidal constants inside of the East Sea basin are determined by the solution of the complex partial differential equation for the sea surface elevation. We studied the influences of the bottom topography and the tidal friction on the distribution of tidal chart inside of the basin. Using the results of basin-wide tidal model, we constructed a detailed tidal chart of the Ma tide off east of Korea.

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

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.26-34
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• 2004

The evolution of intricate and striking patterns of suspended sediments (SS), which are created by certain physical dynamics in the East China and Yellow Seas, has been investigated using satellite ocean color imageries and vertical profiles of particle attenuation and backscattering coefficients. The structure of these patterns can reveal a great deal about the process underlying their formation. Sea surface temperature (SST) analyzed from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) thermal infrared data were used to elucidate the physical factors responsible for the evolution of suspended sediment patterns in the East China Sea. The concomitant patterns of suspended sediments were tracked from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) ocean color data. The detailed examination about these patterns gave birth to the definition of the evolution of suspended sediments (SS) into four stages: (1) Youth or Infant stage, (2) Younger stage, (3) Mature stage, and (4) Old stage. We describe about the three directional forces of the tidal currents, ocean warm currents and estuarine circulations that lead to occurrence of various stages of the evolution of suspended sediments that increase turbidity at high levels through out the water column of the inner and outer shelf areas during September to April. The occurrence of these four stages could be repeatedly observed. In contrast, vertical profiles of the particle attenuation ($c_{p}$) and backscattering ($b_{bp}$) coefficients displayed obvious patterns of the propagation of suspended sediment plume from the southwestern coastal sea that leads to eventual collision with the massive sediment plume originating from the Yangtze banks of the East China Sea.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.14-22
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• 2000

The relationship between the distribution of demersal fishes and that of the water masses was examined by using the catches data and hydrographic data in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea on May 13-19, 1996 and May 10-17, 1997. During the study period, the dominant fish species were Cleisthenes pinetorum herzinsteini, Lophiomus setigerus and Pseudosciaena polyactis. These three low temperature water species accounted for $21-24\%$ of the total catches. The percentage of the low temperature water species was high in the Yellow Sea and the coastal area on the continental shelf of the East China Sea but was low in the vincinity of Kyushu during the study period. In the East China Sea, the isotherm of $15^{\circ}C$ at 50m, mid layer depth, was located more southeast in 1996 than in 1997. The bottom water temperature was about it lower in 1996 than in 1997. The direction of the detided current on the continental shelf of the East China Sea was southward in 1996 and northward in 1997. Yellow Sea Bottom Cold Water (YSBCW) strongly expanded to south in 1996 when the northward current was weak. But, Tsushima Warm Current (TSWC) strongly intruded into the continental shelf of the East China Sea in 1997. As YSBCW expanded strongly to south in 1996, the percentage of the low temperature water species relative to the total catches was high. But, TSWC strongly intruded and the percentage of low temperature water fishes was low in 1997.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.187-198
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• 2018

The monthly salinity maps from Aquarius satellite covering the entire East Sea were produced to analyze the low-salinity water appearing in fall every year. The low-salinity water in the northern East Sea began to appear in May-June, spreading southward along the coast and eastward north of the subpolar front. Low-salinity water from the East China Sea entered the East Sea through the Korea Strait from July to September and was mixed with low-salinity water from the northern East Sea in the Ulleung Basin. The strength of the low-salinity water from the East China Sea was dependent on the strength of the southerly wind of the East China Sea in July-August. The salinity reaches a minimum in September with a distribution parallel to the latitude of $37.5^{\circ}N$. In October, low salinity water is distributed along the mean current path and subpolar front and the entire East Sea is covered with the low salinity water in November. Water with salinity larger than 34 psu starts to flow into the East Sea through the Korea Strait in December and it expands gradually northward up to the subpolar front in January- February.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.207-218
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• 2017

Seawater with salinity of 32.5 psu or less is observed in the southern Japan/East Sea (JES) every autumn. It is confined to a surface layer 30-45 m in depth that expands to cover the entire JES in October. Two sources of "autumn low-salinity water" have been identified from historical hydrographic data in the western JES: East China Sea (ECS) water mixed with fresh water discharge from the Yangtze River (Changjiang) and seawater diluted with melted sea ice in the northern JES. Low-salinity water inflow from the ECS begins in June and reaches its peak in September. Low-salinity water from the northern JES expands southward along the coast, and its horizontal distribution varies among years. A rare observational study of the entire JES in October 1969 indicated that water with salinity less than 33.0 psu covered the southwestern JES; the lowest salinity water was found near the Ulleung Basin. In October 1995, the vertical distribution of salinity observed in a meridional section revealed that water with salinity of 33.6 psu or less was present in the area north of the subpolar front.

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

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.201-211
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• 2015

Acoustic propagation in shallow water with changing environments is a major concern of navy. Temporal and spatial variability of acoustic propagation in the northern East China Sea (ECS) is studied, using the 11 years hydrographic data and the Bellhop acoustic model. Acoustic propagation in the northern ECS is highly variable due to extensive interaction of various ocean currents and boundaries. Seasonal variations of transmission loss (TL) with various source depths are highly affected by sharp gradient of sound speed and bottoms interaction. Especially, various bottom sediment types lead to severely degrading a waterborne propagation with bottom loss. In particular, the highly increased TL near the ocean front depends on the source position, and the direction of sound propagation.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.192-199
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• 2000

Standard CTD data processing recommended by Sea-Bird Electronics produced thermal-lag corrections larger than 0.1 psu for the data taken during the CREAMS expeditions in the northern part of the East/Japan Sea where a vertical temperature gradient frequently exceeds 1.0$^{\circ}$C/m in the upper 100 m near the sea surface. As the standard processing is based upon a recursive filter which was introduced by Lueck and Pickle (1990), coefficients of the recursive filter have been newly derived for the CREAMS data by minimizing the difference between salinities of downcast and upcast in temperature-salinity domain. The new coefficients are validated by comparison with salinities measured by a salinometer, AUTOSAL 8400B. An accurate correction for the thermal-lag is critical in identifying water masses at intermediate depth in the East/japan Sea.

• ALGAE
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.315-326
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• 2019

Northeastward drifts of massive Sargassum patches were observed in the East China Sea (ECS) and Yellow Sea (YS) by the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) in May 2017. Coverage of the brown macroalgae patches was the largest ever recorded in the ECS and YS. Three-dimensional circulation modeling and Lagrangian particle tracking simulations were conducted to reproduce drifting trajectories of the macroalgae patches. The trajectories of the macroalgae patches were controlled by winds as well as surface currents. A windage (leeway) factor of 1% was chosen based on sensitivity simulations. Southerly winds in May 2017 contributed to farther northward intrusion of the brown macroalgae into the YS. Although satellite observation and numerical modeling have their own limitations and associated uncertainties, the two methods can be combined to find the best estimate of Sargassum patch trajectories. When satellites were unable to capture all patches because of clouds and sea fog in the ECS and YS, the Lagrangian particle tracking model helped to track and restore the missing patches in satellite images. This study suggests that satellite monitoring and numerical modeling are complementary to ensure accurate tracking of macroalgae patches in the ECS and YS.