• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.587-601
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• 2020

The ocean circulation was simulated in the East Sea and Ulleungdo-Dokdo region using ROMS (Regional Ocean Modeling System) model. By adopting the East Sea 3 km model and the HYCOM 9 km data, Ulleungdo 1 km model and Ulleungdo-Dokdo 300 m model were constructed with one-way grid nesting method. During the model development, a correction method was proposed for the distortion of the open boundary data which may be caused by the bathymetry data difference between the mother and child models and the interpolation/extrapolation method. Using this model, a super-high resolution ocean circulation with a horizontal resolution of 300 m near the Ulleungdo and Dokdo region was simulated for year 2018. In spite of applying the same conditions except for the initial and boundary data, the numerical models result indicated significantly different characteristics in the study area. Therefore, these results were compared and verified by using the surface current data estimated by satellites altimeter data and temperature data from NIFS (National Institute of Fisheries Science). They suggest that in general, the improvement of the one-way grid nesting with the HYCOM data on RMSE, Mean Bias, Pattern correlation and Vector correlation is greater in 300 m model than in the 1 km model. However, the nesting results of using East Sea 3 km model showed that simulations of the 1 km model were better than 300 m model. The models better resolved distinct ridge/trough structures of isotherms in the vertical sections of water temperature when using the higher horizontal resolution. Furthermore, Karman vortex street was simulated in Ulleungdo-Dokdo 300 m model due to the terrain effect of th islands that was not shown in the Ulleungdo 1 km model.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.351-373
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• 2019

The cold eddies around the Ulleung Basin in the East Sea were identified from satellite altimeter sea level data using the Winding-Angle method from 1993 to 2015. Among the cold eddies, the Dokdo Cold Eddies (DCEs), which were formed at the first meandering trough of the East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) and were pinched off to the southwest from the eastward flow, were classified and their migration patterns were analyzed. The vertical structures of water temperature, salinity, and flow velocity near the DCE center were also examined using numerical simulation and observation data provided by the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model and the National Institute of Fisheries Science, respectively. A total of 112 DCEs were generated for 23 years. Of these, 39 DCEs migrated westward and arrived off the east coast of Korea. The average travel distance was 250.9 km, the average lifespan was 93 days, and the average travel speed was 3.5 cm/s. The other 73 DCEs had moved to the east or had hovered around the generated location until they disappeared. At 50-100 m depth under the DCE, water temperature and salinity (T < $5^{\circ}C$, S < 34.1) were lower than those of ambient water and isotherms made a dome shape. Current faster than 10 cm/s circulates counterclockwise from the surface to 300 m depth at 38 km away from the center of DCE. After the EKWC separates from the coast, it flows eastward and starts to meander near Ulleungdo. The first trough of the meander in the east of Ulleungdo is pushed deep into the southwest and forms a cold eddy (DCE), which is shed from the meander in the south of Ulleungdo. While a DCE moves westward, it circumvents the Ulleung Warm Eddy (UWE) clockwise and follows U shape path toward the east coast of Korea. When the DCE arrives near the coast, the EKWC separates from the coast at the south of DCE and circumvents the DCE. As the DCE near the coast weakens and extinguishes about 30 days later after the arrival, the EKWC flows northward along the coast recovering its original path. The DCE steadily transports heat and salt from the north to the south, which helps to form a cold water region in the southwest of the Ulleung Basin and brings positive vorticity to change the separation latitude and path of the EKWC. Some of the DCEs moving to the west were merged into a coastal cold eddy to form a wide cold water region in the west of Ulleung Basin and to create a elongated anticlockwise circulation, which separated the UWE in the north from the EKWC in the south.