• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.183-192
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• 1998

The long-term observation of temperature in the coastal waters adjacent to the Wolsung Nuclear Power Plant has been carried out from November 10, 1996 to August 22, 1997, for approximately 280 days using a real-time temperature measurement buoy system. The sea-surface temperature was measured at every 10 minute using 10 buoys. The vertical structure of temperature was investigated near the outlet of the plant with two thermistor chains equipped with 10 sensors at 1 m interval The monthly averaged temperature was the lowest with spatial average of $12.8^{\circ}C$ in February and was the highest in August with spatial average of $19.6^{\circ}C$. The extremely low temperature was frequently observed between June and August, which seems to be the consequence of the intrusion of cold water near the southeastern coast of Korea. Distributions of the daily and hourly averaged temperature show that the highest temperature always occurred near the outlet of the plant and the warm-water patch moved along the north-south direction with the semidiurnal period. The semidiurnal fluctuation of temperature was also observed near the surface of the vertical profiles. The spectral analysis of temperature between February and April 1997 shows that the semidiurnal components prevailed near the outlet. It is likely that the semidiurnal components were due to the prevailing semidiurnal tide in this region. In August 1997, the diurnal components were dominant at the surface water of all stations except Station 12, which suggests that the warm water from the outlet of the plant has less effects in summer on the surrounding waters than the strong solar radiation.