• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.133-156
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• 2009

We have named the sea surrounded by the Korean Peninsula, Primorye of Russia, and Japanese Islands as the East Sea. Historically this region has been variously named the East Sea, Chosun Sea, and, more recently, Japan Sea and Sea of Japan. Since the scientific research papers can play important roles on the naming the sea, the status of naming the East Sea in international scientific journals was investigated. Among 472 papers in 46 international journals that we assessed, Japan Sea (or Sea of Japan) was used in 322 papers (68.2%), East Sea was used in 21 papers (4.4%), and parallel usage of East Sea and Japan Sea accounted for 27.3% (129 papers). In all scientific papers before the early 1980s, East Sea was not used. Since the first parallel usage of East Sea and Japan Sea in 1985, these designations has been increasingly used. After 2004, the parallel usage has replaced the single designation of Japan Sea.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.147-152
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• 2002

Seasonal and interannual variation of volume transport through the La-Perouse Strait were estimated using the difference of sea level observed at Krillion of Sakhalin, Russia, and Wakkanai of Hokkaido, Japan, during the period of 1975-1988. Historical sea level measurements between Russian and Japanese tide gauge data were normalized using an independent direct volume transport measurement. Volume transport from the East Sea (Sea of Japan) to the Sea of Okhotsk varied from -0.01 to 1.18 Sv with an annual mean value of 0.61 Sv. Monthly water transport rates showed a unimodal distribution with its maximum occurring in summer (August) and minimum in winter (December-February). The annual mean volume transport varied from 0.2 to 0.8 Sv during the period of 1975-1988 with the maximum variance of 0.6 Sv.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.103-107
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• 2001

The major studies of an ocean circulation of the East/Japan Sea related to evaluate the feasibility and utilization of deep ocean water are reviewed. The major feature of surface current system of the East/Japan Sea is an inflow of the Tsushima Warm Current through the Korea/Tsushima Strait and the outflow through the Tsugaru and Soya Straits. The Tsushima Warm Current has been known to split into two or three branches in the southern region of the East/Japan Sea. In the cold water region of the East/Japan Sea, the North Korean Cold Current turns to the east near 39$^{\circ}$N after meeting the East Korean Warm Current, then flows eastward. The degree of penetration depends on the strength of the positive wind stress curl, according to the ventilation theory. Various current meter moorings indicate strong and oscillatory deep currents in various parts of the basin. According to some numerical experiments, these currents may be induced by pressure-topography or eddy-topography interaction. However, more investigations are needed to explain clearly the presence of these strong bottom currents. This study concludes the importance of topographical coupling, isopycnal outcropping, different wind forcing and the branching of the Tsushima Warm Current on the circulation of the East/Japan Sea.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.287-302
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• 2003

The seasonal variations in the circulation of the water mass in the East Sea/Japan Sea have been simulated using a free surface primitive ocean model, RIAMOM (RIAM Ocean Model), comparing the results from GFDL-MOM1 (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Modular Ocean Model, version 1.1, hereafter MOM) with the GDEM (Generalized Digital Environmental Model) data. Both models appear to successfully reproduce the distinct features of circulation in the East Sea/Japan Sea, such as the NB (Nearshore Branch) flowing along the Japanese coast, the EKWC (East Korean Warm Current) flowing northward along the Korean coast, and the NKCC/LCC (North Korean Cold Current/Liman Cold Current) flowing southwestward along Korean/Russian coast. RIAMOM has shown better performance, compared to MOM, in terms of the realistic simulation of the flow field in the East Sea/Japan Sea; RIAMOM has produced more rectified flows on the coastal region, for example, the narrower and stronger NKCC/LCC than MOM has. There is however obvious differences between the model results and the GDEM data in terms of the calculation of the water mass; both models have shown a tendency to overpredict temperature and underpredict salinity below 50m; more diffusive forms of thermocline and halocline have been simulated than noted in GDEM data.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.150-158
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• 2007

Data on squid catches, water temperature, and climatic factors collected for the Northwest and subtropical North Pacific were analyzed to examine the influence of oceanic and climatic conditions in spawning grounds on catches of Japanese common squid, Todarodes pacificus, in the East (Japan) Sea. The main spawning ground was divided into four sub-areas: the South Sea of Korea (R1), the southern waters off Jeju, Korea (R2), the southwestern part of Kyushu, Japan (R3), and the northern part of Okinawa, Japan (R4). Interannual and decadal fluctuations in water temperatures correlated well with squid catches in the East/Japan Sea. In particular, water temperatures at a depth of 50 to 100 m in sub-areas R3 and R4 showed higher correlation coefficients (0.54 to 0.59, p<0.01) in relation to squid catches in the East/Japan Sea than for R1 and R2, which had correlation coefficients of 0.40 or less (p>0.05). Air temperature and wind velocity fluctuations in each sub-area are correlated with water temperature fluctuations and were closely connected with variations in the surface mixed layers. Water, air temperatures and wind velocities at the main spawning grounds are linked to the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) with higher signals in the ca. 2-4-year band. Strong changes in a specific band and phase occurred around 1976/77 and 1986/87, coincident with changes in squid catches.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.27-42
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• 1993

Based on the Results of Marine Meteorological and Oceanographical Observations during 1966∼1987 and the Ten-day Marine Report during 1970∼1989 by Japan Meteorological Agency, the possible area where the Japan Sea Proper Water (JSPW) can be formed is investigated by analyzing the distribution of water types in the Japan Sea. The Japan Sea can be divided into three subareas of Northern Cold Water(NCW), Polar Front(PF) and Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) by the Polar Front identified by a 6℃ isothermal line at the sea surface in vinter. Mean position of the Polar Front is approximately parallel to the latitude 39∼40。N. The standard deviation of the Polar Front from the mean position of about 130km width is the smallest in the region between 136。E and 138。E where the Polar Front is very stable, because the branches of the Tsushima Current are converging in this region. However, standard deviations are about 180∼250km near the Korean peninsula and the Tsugaru Strait due to greater variability of warm currents. In the NCW area north of 40∼30。N and west of 138。E, the water types of the sea surface to the loom depth are similar to those of the JSPW. This fact indicates that the surface layer of the NCW area is the possible region of the JSPW formation in winter.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2012

The geographical distribution of the toxic blue-lined octopus (commonly known as the blue-ringed octopus), Hapalochlaena spp., around the East/Japan Sea was investigated. Observation records of the octopus were gathered using commercial search engines on the Internet. A questionnaire to complement and enhance the base data was conducted that targeted fishermen from areas where the octopus was most likely to occur, i.e., the southeast coast and islands of Korea in the East/Japan Sea. Overall, 32 observational records of the blue-lined octopus were found from Korea and Japan. In Korea, only one record, from 2003, was found on a website; none of the 240 fishermen who participated in the questionnaire reported seeing blue-lined octopus. However, a total of 31 observations of the blue-lined octopus from 2004 to July 2010 were found from 17 different regions in the East/Japan Sea and neighboring waters in Japan. Twenty-two cases were from coastal Honshu Island, and nine were from the west coast of Kyushu Island, Japan. The northern distributional boundary of the blue-lined octopus on the Japanese coast was off Fukui Prefecture around latitude $36^{\circ}$10' N. Our results indicate that the blue-lined octopus is distributed extensively along the Japanese coast, at a low frequency, in the East/Japan Sea.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.165-170
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• 2003

A significant surface net heat loss appears around the Kuroshio and the Tsushima Warm Current regions. The area where the surface heat loss occurs should require heat to be supplied by the current to maintain the long-term annual heat balance. Oceanic heat advection in these regions plays an important role in the heat budget. The spatial distribution of the heat supply by the Tsushima Warm Current near the surface was examined by calculating the horizontal heat supply in the surface layer of the East/Japan Sea, directly from historical sea surface temperature and current data. We have also found a simple estimation of the effective vertical scale of heat supply by the current to compensate net heat loss using the heat supplied by the current in the surface 10m layer. The heat supplied by the current for the annual heat balance was large in the Korea/Tsushima Strait and along the Japanese Coast, and was small in the northwestern part of the East/Japan Sea. The amount of heat supplied by the current was large in the northwestern part and small in the southeastern part of the East/Japan Sea. These features suggest that the heat supplied by the Tsushima Warm Current is restricted to near the surface around the northeastern part and extends to a deeper layer around the southeastern part of the East/Japan Sea.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.57-76
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• 2019

Based on the analysis of the appellation from a historical perspective and the diversity of the notation East Sea, this study was conducted to analyze the characteristics of cataloging records related to East Sea in 54 national libraries of the each country. The results are as follows. To begin with, while most of the East Sea-related records are concentrated in some specific national libraries such as the United States, Russia, and the Japan, there are five libraries that do not have one. Second, the title keyword of East Sea-related records was 67.9% for 'Sea of Japan', 29.6% for 'East Sea', and 2.5% for these terms shown together in the national libraries of each country. Third, the subject heading of East Sea-related records was 86.9% for 'Sea of Japan' or 'Sea of Japan(geographic name)', 1.2% for 'East Sea', and 11.9% for general subject heading or blank.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.423-429
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• 2001

Satellite data, with sea surface temperature(557) by NOAA and sea level(SL) by Topex/poseidon, are used to estimate characteristics on the variations and correlations of 557 and SL in the East Asian Seas from January 1993 through May 1998. We found that there are two climatic characteristics in the East Asian seas the oceanic climate, the eastern sea of Japan, and the continental climate, the eastern sea of China, respectively. In the oceanic climate, the variations of SL have the high values in the main current of Kuroshio and the variations of 557 have not the remarkable seasonal variations because of the continuos compensation of warm current by Kuroshio. In the continental climate, SL has high variations in the estuaries(the Yellow River, the Yangtze River) with the mixing the fresh water and the saline water in the coasts of continent and 557 has highly the seasonal variations due to the climatic effect of continents. In the steric variations of summer, the eastern sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the western sod of Korea is increased the sea level about 10~20cm. But the Bohai bay in China have relatively the high values about 20~30cm due to the continental climate. generally the trends of SST and SL increased during all periods. That is say, the slopes of 557 and SL Is presented 0.29$^{\circ}C$/year and 0.84cm/year, respectively. The annual and semi-annual amplitudes have a remarkable variations in the western sea of Korea and the eastern sea of Japan. In the case of the annual peaks, there appeared mainly In the western sea of Korea and the eastern sea of .Japan because of the remarkable variations of SL associated with Kuroshio. But in the case of the semi-annual peaks, there appeared in the eastern sea of Japan by the influence of current, and in the western sea of Korea by the influence of seasonal temperature, respectively. From our results, it should be believed that 557 and SL gradually Increase in the East Asian seas concerning to the global warming. So that, it should be requested In the international co-operation against In the change of the abnormal climate.