• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2006

This study investigated the temperature-salinity spatio-temporal variability around the Ulleung-do Island (UI) by using CTD profiles obtained by the ARGO floats far the period of Oct.,2003 to Aug.,2005. The waterbody in the upper 700 m around the UI could be classified into five water masses, which is consistent to traditional water characteristics in the East Sea. In the upper surface layer, the temperature and salinity in fall season became even lower than those properties in the summer time. The East Sea Intermediate Water (ESIW) characterized by the salinity minimum layer shows the range of potential temperature between 1 to $5^{\circ}C$ and salinity lower than 34.06 psu. The ESIW lies approximately at 265 m depth with average thickness of 175 m. This thickness of the ESIW continues to be relatively uniform regardless of spatio-temporal space. However, the depth of the ESIW shows vertical variation influenced by the Ulleung warm eddy (UWE). Since the UWE lies in the upper layer, the Upper Portion of the Japan Sea Proper. Water (UPJSPW) is also affected to show the vertical variation. The influence extorted by the UWE reached down to 700 m depth in terms of temperature. The CTD profiles obtained with the high sampling rate by ARCO floats over two-year period provided with very useful and detailed informations in investigating the spatio-temporal variability In the study area.