• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.457-467
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• 2019

To investigate the long-term variation characteristics of nutrients in the east coast of Korea, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and nutrients were measured at three stations of Sokcho, Jukbyeon and Gampo coasts for five years from 2013 to 2017. For five years, the water temperature of the East Sea coast was in the range of $1.2{\sim}28.8^{\circ}C$, the salinity was in the range of 30.63~34.79 and the dissolved oxygen (DO) was in the range of 3.53~7.64 mL/L. Distribution and variation of the water environment factors in the study area were determined by the vertical stratification of water column and distribution of water temperature. The high DO concentration in Sokcho coast From 2015 to August 2016 is presumed to be the result of the southward inflow of North Korean Cold Water (NKCW). Concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN, $NH_4-N+NO_2-N+NO_3-N$) ranged $0.11{\sim}24.19{\mu}M$, phosphate concentration ranged $0.01{\sim}1.75{\mu}M$, and silicate ranged $0.17{\sim}32.80{\mu}M$. The N:P ratio was in the range of 0.7~54.3 (mean 15.2) and the N:P slope was in the range of 11.67~13.75. The N:P ratios in this study were lower than the Redfield ratio (16), indicating that nitrate did act as a limiting factor in phytoplankton growth. The correlation ($R^2$) of total N:P ratio was as high as 0.95, indicating that the effect of the surrounding land or non-point sources was not significant. In conclusion, the spatial and temporal variation of nutrients in the east coast of Korea was determined by the vertical mixing of water mass with thermocline and mainly affected by physical factors such as influx of external water masses and coastal upwelling, and the influences from inflows from the land were minimal.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.632-645
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• 2021

Satellite sea surface temperature (SST) composites provide important data for numerical forecasting models and for research on global warming and climate change. In this study, six types of representative SST composite database were collected from 2007 to 2018 and the characteristics of spatial structures of SSTs were analyzed in seas around the Korean Peninsula. The SST composite data were compared with time series of in-situ measurements from ocean meteorological buoys of the Korea Meteorological Administration by analyzing the maximum value of the errors and its occurrence time at each buoy station. High differences between the SST data and in-situ measurements were detected in the western coastal stations, in particular Deokjeokdo and Chilbaldo, with a dominant annual or semi-annual cycle. In Pohang buoy, a high SST difference was observed in the summer of 2013, when cold water appeared in the surface layer due to strong upwelling. As a result of spectrum analysis of the time series SST data, daily satellite SSTs showed similar spectral energy from in-situ measurements at periods longer than one month approximately. On the other hand, the difference of spectral energy between the satellite SSTs and in-situ temperature tended to magnify as the temporal frequency increased. This suggests a possibility that satellite SST composite data may not adequately express the temporal variability of SST in the near-coastal area. The fronts from satellite SST images revealed the differences among the SST databases in terms of spatial structure and magnitude of the oceanic fronts. The spatial scale expressed by the SST composite field was investigated through spatial spectral analysis. As a result, the high-resolution SST composite images expressed the spatial structures of mesoscale ocean phenomena better than other low-resolution SST images. Therefore, in order to express the actual mesoscale ocean phenomenon in more detail, it is necessary to develop more advanced techniques for producing the SST composites.