• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.219-224
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• 2007

Two monitoring buoys equipped with ADCP were deployed at the deepest positions along the trough of the central Gwangyang Bay in spring 2006 in order to study the circulation in the bay. Northward velocity is commonly dominant at both stations located in the eastern part of the channel, which supports the cyclonic circulation accompanied by the southward flow in the western part. The southern station has a distinct two-layer structure with current reversal at 14 m depth and increasing northward velocity in the lower layer to 36 m depth close to the bottom. At the northern station the northward flow becomes accelerated due to the decrease in the cross-sectional area and this northward current is dominant even in the upper layer. In the modal structure from the EOF analysis, the first mode has 74% of total variance at the northern station whereas it is 67% but the baroclinic portion increases at the southern station. The typical northward velocity is about 10 cm/s which is associated with the cyclonic circulation. Subtidal variability due to the local wind effect is negligible, but the nonlocal response associated with offshore Ekman flux by the zonal wind is found during strong wind events.