• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.208-225
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• 2019

To understand the mean surface circulation and surface currents in the East Sea, trajectories of surface drifters passed through the East Sea from 1991 to 2017 were analyzed. By analyzing the surface drifter trajectory data, the main paths of surface ocean currents were grouped and the variation in each main current path was investigated. The East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) heading northward separates from the coast at $36{\sim}38^{\circ}N$ and flows to the northeast until $131^{\circ}E$. In the middle (from $131^{\circ}E$ to $137^{\circ}E$) of the East Sea, the average latitude of the currents flowing eastward ranges from 36 to $40^{\circ}N$ and the currents meander with large amplitude. When the average latitude of the surface drifter paths was in the north (south) of $37.5^{\circ}N$, the meandering amplitude was about 50 (100) km. The most frequent route of surface drifters in the middle of the East Sea was the path along $37.5-38.5^{\circ}N$. The surface drifters, which were deployed off the coast of Vladivostok in the north of the East Sea, moved to the southwest along the coast and were separated from the coast to flow southeastward along the cyclonic circulation around the Japan Basin. And, then, the drifters moved to the east along $39-40^{\circ}N$. The mean surface current vector and mean speed were calculated in each lattice with $0.25^{\circ}$ grid spacing using the velocity data of surface drifters which passed through each lattice. The current variance ellipses were calculated with $0.5^{\circ}$ grid spacing. Because the path of the EKWC changes every year in the western part of the Ulleung Basin and the current paths in the Yamato Basin keep changing with many eddies, the current variance ellipses are relatively large in these region. We present a schematic map of the East Sea surface current based on the surface drifter data. The significance of this study is that the surface ocean circulation of the East Sea, which has been mainly studied by numerical model simulations and the sea surface height data obtained from satellite altimeters, was analyzed based on in-situ Lagrangian observational current data.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.167-174
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• 2003

Oceanic conditions of the Tsushirm Wann Current (1WC) region in the southern area if the East Sea (the Japan Sea) are examined using data obtained from a CREAMS (Circulation Research if the East Asian Marginal Seas) cruise in June 1996. In 1990s, a lower temperature appears in $19\%$ and in this period, two branch of the TWC exist and the first branch of the TWC flows inshore if the Japanese coastal region compared to tfr1t in the other years, especially in the sfr1llower water layer at less th:1n about 2mm. The TWC cored with the higher salinity (>34.6 psu) is clearly observed over the continental shelf zone in the Japanese coastal region and offshore and identified by geostrophic calculation Intrusion if the TWC into the East Sea through the Korea Strait (the Tsushima Strait) makes the density structure in the water column change and the water mass in the TWC region is unstable based on Brunt- Vaisala frequency.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.187-198
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• 2018

The monthly salinity maps from Aquarius satellite covering the entire East Sea were produced to analyze the low-salinity water appearing in fall every year. The low-salinity water in the northern East Sea began to appear in May-June, spreading southward along the coast and eastward north of the subpolar front. Low-salinity water from the East China Sea entered the East Sea through the Korea Strait from July to September and was mixed with low-salinity water from the northern East Sea in the Ulleung Basin. The strength of the low-salinity water from the East China Sea was dependent on the strength of the southerly wind of the East China Sea in July-August. The salinity reaches a minimum in September with a distribution parallel to the latitude of $37.5^{\circ}N$. In October, low salinity water is distributed along the mean current path and subpolar front and the entire East Sea is covered with the low salinity water in November. Water with salinity larger than 34 psu starts to flow into the East Sea through the Korea Strait in December and it expands gradually northward up to the subpolar front in January- February.

• 한국해양학회지
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.85-91
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• 1971

The origin of the Tsushima Current water was investigated with a discussion on the western North Pacific Central Water. The Tsushima Current water is formed by the mixing of the Kuroshio surface water and the East China Sea water. The area where the mixing takes place remarkably is found to be the marginal region of the continental shelf of the East China Sea at the depth from 100 to 200 meters.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.60-67
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• 2003

Typhoon Rusa passed over the East China Sea and crossed over the Korea Peninsula on August 31, 2002. The core of the typhoon passed directly over a data buoy mooring site at ($127^{\circ}45'E,\;34^{\circ}25'\;N$) and several ARGOS-tracked drifters capable of measuring salinity. Peak hourly mean wind speed reached 28 m/s at the mooring site and wind pattern in the East China Sea changed from southerly wind to northwesterly wind after the typhoon passage. Two or three days before the typhoon tile drifter displacement changed significantly and the region-wide circulation pattern changed from a northeastward current to a westward current one week after the typhoon had passed. The surface water in the East China Sea was cooled to about $4^{\circ}C$ under the typhoon core and a general cooling occurred in most of the East China Sea with the exception of the Chinese coast. The salinity as observed by the drifters in the East China Sea increased about 2 psu but the near-shore water along the Korean coast observed by the mooring was freshened about 3 psu. The freshening of near-shore water was caused by an intrusion of off-shore water rather than local freshening by typhoon precipitation.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.99-111
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• 2022

Together with the development of measurement techniques, radiocarbon (¹⁴C) has been increasingly used as a key tool to investigate carbon cycling and associated biogeochemistry in the ocean. In this paper, the current status of radiocarbon studies in the East Sea (Japan Sea) is reviewed. Previously, spatiotemporal distribution and change of the water masses in the East Sea from 1979 to 1999 were investigated by using the ¹⁴C in the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC). Researches on sinking particulate organic carbon (POC) revealed that POC in the deep ocean has more complex and heterogeneous origins than we expected. In particular, since 2011, Korean researchers have been collecting sinking particle samples for more than 10 years, so it is expected that ¹⁴C of POC will provide important information to understand carbon cycling in relation to climate change. Although the quantity of ¹⁴C data published in the East Sea is still limited, the importance and the future direction of using ¹⁴C to understand the biogeochemical mechanisms of carbon cycling and its role as a carbon reservoir in the East Sea are detailed herein.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.423-429
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• 2001

Satellite data, with sea surface temperature(557) by NOAA and sea level(SL) by Topex/poseidon, are used to estimate characteristics on the variations and correlations of 557 and SL in the East Asian Seas from January 1993 through May 1998. We found that there are two climatic characteristics in the East Asian seas the oceanic climate, the eastern sea of Japan, and the continental climate, the eastern sea of China, respectively. In the oceanic climate, the variations of SL have the high values in the main current of Kuroshio and the variations of 557 have not the remarkable seasonal variations because of the continuos compensation of warm current by Kuroshio. In the continental climate, SL has high variations in the estuaries(the Yellow River, the Yangtze River) with the mixing the fresh water and the saline water in the coasts of continent and 557 has highly the seasonal variations due to the climatic effect of continents. In the steric variations of summer, the eastern sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the western sod of Korea is increased the sea level about 10~20cm. But the Bohai bay in China have relatively the high values about 20~30cm due to the continental climate. generally the trends of SST and SL increased during all periods. That is say, the slopes of 557 and SL Is presented 0.29$^{\circ}C$/year and 0.84cm/year, respectively. The annual and semi-annual amplitudes have a remarkable variations in the western sea of Korea and the eastern sea of Japan. In the case of the annual peaks, there appeared mainly In the western sea of Korea and the eastern sea of .Japan because of the remarkable variations of SL associated with Kuroshio. But in the case of the semi-annual peaks, there appeared in the eastern sea of Japan by the influence of current, and in the western sea of Korea by the influence of seasonal temperature, respectively. From our results, it should be believed that 557 and SL gradually Increase in the East Asian seas concerning to the global warming. So that, it should be requested In the international co-operation against In the change of the abnormal climate.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.163-177
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• 2013

An instrumented ferry made two transects per day across two current systems which are the North Korean Cold Current and the East Korean Warm Current over the years 2012-2013 from Gangneung to Ulleungdo in the southwestern East Sea. Seawater properties of these transects were measured with high spatial and temporal resolution for an extended period of time. Here the salinity records from the transects with the oceanographic observation data from East Sea Fisheries Institute of NFRDI, AVISO daily current chart and GOCI Chlorophyll-a image in 2012 and 2013 are used to study the time-series variation of salinity at the surface. The high salinity section with the range of 33.15~34.12 occurred on the transect mainly in the middle of eddy, and western boundary of strong northward current from June to October. We can found low salinity waters in both sides of the high salinity section. It is estimated that the western low salinity waters with the range of 30.58~33.20 accompanied by southward current were derived from the NKCC and the eastern waters with the range of 31.30~33.24 accompanied by northward current were derived from the Tsushima Surface Water. The lowest salinity of NKCC is confirmed in this study as 30.36. It is found that the western waters below 33.00 extended extremely toward the east about 110 km area from Gangneung and toward the south around Jukbyon coastal area as a 5~10 m layer. We can find its volume of low saline waters transport is not neglectable compared with that of Tsushima Current region in the western part of the East Sea. In this study we named it as the North Korean Low Saline Surface Water in summer.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.163-171
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• 2000

A series of numerical experiments are performed to examine the generation of inter-annual variations by an inertial current in an idealized semi-enclosed basin with dimension comparable to that of the East Sea. Model results indicate that the inter-annual variations dominate the kinetic energy spectrum with a peak around the time scales of 2-3 years. These variations are mostly due to the westward propagating meanders and large eddies induced by the instability of current, indicating their dependency on the eddy-resolving capacity of the model. They are generated in the interior of the basin but their energy is largely confined near the western boundary such that the east-west dimension of the basin cannot be considered as a critical factor as long as the basin covers enough western boundary region. Overall, this study suggests that the inter-annual variation observed in the East Sea is due to the meandering and large eddies induced by the instability of the current.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2008

Analyzing the results of East Sea Regional Ocean Model using a 3-dimensional variational data assimilation scheme, we investigated spatial and temporal variability of the North Korean Cold Current (NKCC) in the East Sea. The climatological monthly mean transport of the NKCC clearly shows seasonal variation of the NKCC within the range of about 0.35 Sv ($=0^6m^3/s$), which increases from its minimum (about 0.45 Sv) through December-January to March, decreases during March and May, and then increases again to the maximum (about 0.8 Sv) in August-September. The volume transport of the NKCC shows interannual variation of the NKCC with the range of about 1.0 Sv that is larger than seasonal variation. The southward current of the NKCC appears often not only in summer but in winter as well. The width of the NKCC is about 35 km near the Korean coast and its core is located under the East Korea Warm Current. The North Korean Cold Water (NKCW), characterized by low salinity and low temperature, is located both under the Tsushima Warm Water and in the western side of the maximum southward current of the NKCC that means the NKCC advects the NKCW southward along the Korean coast. It is revealed that the intermediate low salinity water, formed off the Vladivostok in winter, flows southward to the south of $37^{\circ}N$ through $2{\sim}3$ paths; one path along the Korean coast, another one along $132^{\circ}E$, and the middle path along $130^{\circ}E$. The path of the intermediate low salinity varies with years. The reanalysis fields suggest that the NKCW is advected through the paths along the Korean coast and along $130^{\circ}E$.