A Relationship between the Sea Level Variations in the Korea Strait and the Tokara Strait in the Kuroshio region

A relationship between sea level variations in the Korea Strait (the western and the eastern channels) and the Tokara Strait in the Kuroshio region is examined using daily-mean sea level data from 1966 to 1986. The seasonal variation of the sea level difference (SLD) between Izuhara and Pusan (the western channel) is most periodic: the positive anomalies appear from summer to autumn, and the negative anomalies from winter to spring year to year, whereas SLDs neither between Hakata and Izuhara (the eastern channel) nor between Naze and Nishinoomote (the Tokara Strait) show such a periodic variation. Much similarity has been found between SLDs in the eastern channel and the Tokara Strait, and in particular they were closely correlated in a special event of the Kuroshio region, such as a large meander of the Kuroshio. This paper shows that the periodic seasonal variation of the SLDs in the western channel should be less related to the Kuroshio region. This result also implies that the variation of SLD in the western channel is largely influenced by local factors, such as the bottom cold water in the western channel in summer, rather than from the Kuroshio region.