A Note on the Outflow Boundary Conditions in Modeling the East Sea Circulation

Three different outflow boundary conditions are considered in modeling the East Sea circulation. The first one is that of the conventional constant volume transport (CT). The second one is the Orlanski radiation boundary condition (OR). The third one is that of the constant sea level just outside the outflow boundary (SL). In the third condition, the outflow current is set to be driven by the sea level differences across the outflow open-boundary lines, based on the recent knowledge that the Tsushima Current is driven by the sea level differences across the inflow and outflow boundaries. In case of OR it takes too much time to reach the steady state, resulting in a large increase of Tsushima Current Water in the basin and low level of kinetic energy. Both CT and SL reach the steady state in a relatively short time. However, SL is more recommendable, because it is based on physical background and generates less numerical noises than CT.