• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2023

The East Sea, one of the regions where the most rapid warming is occurring, is known to have important implications for the response of the ocean to future climate changes because it not only reacts sensitively to climate change but also has a much shorter turnover time (hundreds of years) than the ocean (thousands of years). However, the processes underlying changes in seawater characteristics at the sea's deep and abyssal layers, and meridional overturning circulation have recently been examined only after international cooperative observation programs for the entire sea allowed in-situ data in a necessary resolution and accuracy along with recent improvement in numerical modeling. In this review, previous studies on the physical characteristics of seawater at deeper parts of the East Sea, and meridional overturning circulation are summarized to identify any remaining issues. The seawater below a depth of several hundreds of meters in the East Sea has been identified as the Japan Sea Proper Water (East Sea Proper Water) due to its homogeneous physical properties of a water temperature below 1℃ and practical salinity values ranging from 34.0 to 34.1. However, vertically high-resolution salinity and dissolved oxygen observations since the 1990s enabled us to separate the water into at least three different water masses (central water, CW; deep water, DW; bottom water, BW). Recent studies have shown that the physical characteristics and boundaries between the three water masses are not constant over time, but have significantly varied over the last few decades in association with time-varying water formation processes, such as convection processes (deep slope convection and open-ocean deep convection) that are linked to the re-circulation of the Tsushima Warm Current, ocean-atmosphere heat and freshwater exchanges, and sea-ice formation in the northern part of the East Sea. The CW, DW, and BW were found to be transported horizontally from the Japan Basin to the Ulleung Basin, from the Ulleung Basin to the Yamato Basin, and from the Yamato Basin to the Japan Basin, respectively, rotating counterclockwise with a shallow depth on the right of its path (consistent with the bottom topographic control of fluid in a rotating Earth). This horizontal deep circulation is a part of the sea's meridional overturning circulation that has undergone changes in the path and intensity. Yet, the linkages between upper and deeper circulation and between the horizontal and meridional overturning circulation are not well understood. Through this review, the remaining issues to be addressed in the future were identified. These issues included a connection between the changing properties of CW, DW, and BW, and their horizontal and overturning circulations; the linkage of deep and abyssal circulations to the upper circulation, including upper water transport from and into the Western Pacific Ocean; and processes underlying the temporal variability in the path and intensity of CW, DW, and BW.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2004.05b
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• pp.89-92
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• 2004

Potential vorticity is useful to illustrate mechanism and distribution pattern of current circulation the upper layer in the East Sea is divided into three part following like surface layer, Tsushima Warm Current(TWC) layer. Potential vorticity shows well the meandering of the TWC and polar front and circulation cell ill the northern part of polar front.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.225-242
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• 2012

This is the first attempt to produce simultaneous surface current field from satellite altimeter data for the entire East Sea and to provide surface current information to users with formal description. It is possible to estimate surface geostrophic current field in near real-time because satellite altimeters and coastal tide gauges supply sea level data for the whole East Sea. Strength and location of the major currents and meso-scale eddies can be identified from the estimated surface geostrophic current field. The mean locations of major surface currents were explicated relative to topographic, ocean-surface and undersea features with schematic representation of surface circulation. In order to demonstrate the practical use of this surface current information, exemplary descriptions of annual, seasonal and monthly mean surface geostrophic current distributions were presented. In order to objectively classify surface circulation patterns in the East Sea, empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis was performed on the estimated 16-year (1993-2008) surface current data. The first mode was associated with intensification or weakening of the East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) flowing northward along the east coast of Korea and of the anti-cyclonic circulation southwest of Yamato Basin. The second mode was associated with meandering paths of the EKWC in the southern East Sea with wavelength of 300 km. The first and second modes had inter-annual variations. The East Sea surface circulation was classified as inertial boundary current pattern, Tsushima Warm Current pattern, meandering pattern, and Offshore Branch pattern by the time coefficient of the first two EOF modes.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.223-242
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• 2001

This paper presents the depth-mean monthly variation in the circulation of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea computed using a robust diagnostic model. The mixed three-dimensional finite-difference Galerkin function model developed by Lee et at. (2000, 2001) has been extended to take into account baroclinic effects and then used to calculate the depth-mean flow fields as part of the results. In addition to M2 tide and oceanic flows previously considered, the model has been driven by the monthly mean wind stresses from Na and Seo (1998), the density gradient calculated based on by GDEM data set released by US Navy. Model results are very encouraging in that many of observed features including Jeju Cyclonic Gyre and frontal eddies along the shelfside of the Kuroshio main stream and west of Kyushu, are satisfactorily reproduced and are expected to be of value in interpreting observations in various oceanograhic disciplines.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.45-58
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• 1992

A three-dimensional hydrodynamic numerical model is used to compute the annual and seasonal meteorologically-induced residual circulation on the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea continental shelf. The model is formulated having irregular coastal boundaires and non-uniform depth distribution representative of nature. The previous three-dimensional model of the East China Sea (Choi. 19U) has been further refined to resolve the flow over the continental shelf in more detail. The mesh resolution of the present finite difference grid system used is 4 minutes latitude by 5 minutes longitude over the entire shelf. The circulation pattern showing depth and spatial distribution of currents over the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea is presented. Meteorologically-induced currents are subsequently used to compute turn-over times for the three depths (surface. mid-depth. bottom) and the total water column of various regions of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.105-114
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• 1997

Wind is one of the main forcing contributing the circulation of the East Sea. By using 1.5-layer and 2.5-layer reduced gravity models, circulation in the East Sea is simulated. The bifurcation of the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC), the separation of East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) from the east coast of Korea, the Nearshore Branch of TWC, and the cyclonic gyres stretched from the East Korea Bay to the northern half of the East Sea are compared well with the schematic map. The features of the upper and the lower layer are very similar except for those of the central region. The Polar Front is the separating line of two different features. The main feature of northern part of the East Sea, north of the Polar Front is cyclonic gyres, which are composed of three cyclonic gyres in most seasons. North Korean Cold Current (NKCC) and Liman Cold Current (LCC) are the nearshore part of these cyclonic gyres. In the south of the Polar Front the current systems of both layers are anticyclonic in most seasons, except that those of the upper layer in winter and spring are not anticyclonic. Along the coast of Korea and Russia, the velocity structure is barotropic, while that of the central region is baroclinic. The effects due to the seasonal variations of wind stress and local Ekman suction/pumping are studied by imposing the domain with modified wind stress. which is spatial mean with temporal variations and temporal mean with spatial variations. It is found that the local Ekman suction/pumping due to wind stress curl is important to the formation of the cyclonic gyres in the western and the northwestern region of the East Sea.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.229-237
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• 2012

Using results from an Earth System model, we investigated change in primary production in the East China Sea, under a global warming scenario. As global warming progresses, the vertical stratification of water becomes stronger, and nutrient supply from the lower part to the upper part is reduced. Consequently, so is the primary production. In addition to the warming trend, there is strong decadal to interdecadal scale variability, and it takes a few decades before the warming trend surpasses natural variability. Thus, it would be very hard to investigate the global warming trend using data of several years' length.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.121-132
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• 1993

A three-dimensional barotropic model is used to compute meteorologically-induced circulations in the East Sea for monthly, seasonal and annual basis. The computed barotropic responses have shown that in the upper part of the 40$^{\circ}$ North latitude. counterclockwise meso-scale eddies have been formed off Dong Han Man, middle part of the East Sea and sea area between the Siberian coast and Hokkaido throughout the year except summer season. These results are in good agreements with some of earlier schematic circulation diagram.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.87-97
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• 1999

To estimate absolute transports by advection in the southwestern East Sea (Japan Sea), an inverse method was applied to CTD data obtained in July 1993. The relative velocities are calculated using the thermal wind equation. The inverse model was formulated to obtain a reference velocity based on the mass conservation in each of four vertical layers within a region enclosed by hydrographic sections and the coastal boundary. The flow patterns in the surface layer are clockwise and anti-clockwise in the regions south and northwest of Ulleung Island, respectively, and a strong northward flow appears in between them. In the second layer, the flow fields are generally weak. The inverse calculation yields the southward flow along the coast, and this suggests that the subsurface low salinity water in the Ulleung Basin is supplied by the southward transport along the east coast of Korea.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.300-303
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• 2001

The first 7 years of altimeter data from the TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) were analyzed to study the surface circulation and its variability in the East Asian Marginal 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. T/P 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 valibility, with strong eddy and meandaring, was the largest in eastern part of Japan and this variability was mainly due to the influence of bottom topography in Kuroshio Extention area.