Sea surface circulation and ie variability in the North East Asian Seas by remote sensing (Topex/Poseidon)

Altimeter data from the Topex/Poseidon (T/P) were analyzed to study the sea surface circulation and its variability in the North East Asian Seas. Long term averaged T/P sea level time series data where compared with in situ sea level measurements from a float-operated type tide gauge around of south Korea and Japan. Tf data are a large contaminated by 60-day tidal aliasing effect, very near the alias periods of M2 and S2. When this 60-day effect is removed, the data agree well with the tide gauge data with 4.6 cm averaged RMS difference. The T/P derived sea level variability reveals clearly the well-known, strong current-topography such as Kuroshio. The T/P mean sea level of North Pacific (NP) was higher than Yellow Sea (YS) and East Sea (ES). The T/P sea level variability, with strong eddy and meandering, was the largest in eastern part of Japan and this variability was mainly due to the influence of bottom topography in Kuroshio Extension area.