• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.58-60
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• 2004

Sea level variations and sea surface circulations in the Korean seas were observed by Topex/Poseidon altimeter data from 1993 through 1997. In sea level variations, the West and South Sea showed relatively high variations with comparison to the East Sea. Then, the northern and southern area in the West Sea showed the range of 20∼30cm and 18∼24cm, and the northern west of Jeju island and the southern west of Tsushima island in the South Sea showed the range of 15∼20cm and 10∼15cm, respectively. High variations in the West Sea were results to the inflow in sea surface of Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) and bottom topography. Sea level variations in the South Sea were due to two branch currents (Jeju Warm Current and East Korea Warm Current) originated from Kuroshio Current (KC). In sea surface circulations, there existed remarkably three eddies circulations in the East Sea that are mainly connected with North Korea Cold Current (NKCC), East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) and Tushima Warm Current (TWC). Their eddies are caused basically to the influence of currents in sea surface circulations; Cyclone (0.03 cm/see) in the Wonsan bay off shore with NKCC, and anticyclone (0.06 cm/see) in the southwestern area of Ulleung island with EKWC, and cyclone (0.01 cm/see) in the northeastern area of Tushima island with TWC, respectively.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.879-881
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• 2003

Sea level variations and sea surface circulations in the Korean seas were observed by Topex/Poseidon altimeter data from 1993 through 1997. In sea level variations, the West and South Sea showed relatively high variations with comparison to the East Sea. Then, the northern and southern area in the West Sea showed the range of 20${\sim}$30cm and 18${\sim}$24cm, and the northern west of Jeju island and the southern west of Tsushima island in the South Sea showed the range of 15${\sim}$20cm and 10${\sim}$15cm, respectively. High variations in the West Sea was results to the inflow in sea surface of Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) and bottom topography. Sea level variations in the South Sea was due to two branch currents(Jeju Warm Current and East Korea Warm Current) originated from Kuroshio Current (KC). In sea surface circulations, there existed remarkably three eddies circulations in the East Sea that are mainly connected with North Korea Cold Current (NKCC), East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) and Tushima Warm Current(TWC). Their eddies are caused basically to the influence of currents in sea surface circulations; Cyclone (0.03 cm/sec) in the Wonsan bay off shore with NKCC, and anticyclone (0.06 cm/sec) in the southwestern area of Ulleung island with EKWC, and cyclone (0.01 cm/sec) in the northeastern area of Tushima island with TWC, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.165-170
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• 2003

A significant surface net heat loss appears around the Kuroshio and the Tsushima Warm Current regions. The area where the surface heat loss occurs should require heat to be supplied by the current to maintain the long-term annual heat balance. Oceanic heat advection in these regions plays an important role in the heat budget. The spatial distribution of the heat supply by the Tsushima Warm Current near the surface was examined by calculating the horizontal heat supply in the surface layer of the East/Japan Sea, directly from historical sea surface temperature and current data. We have also found a simple estimation of the effective vertical scale of heat supply by the current to compensate net heat loss using the heat supplied by the current in the surface 10m layer. The heat supplied by the current for the annual heat balance was large in the Korea/Tsushima Strait and along the Japanese Coast, and was small in the northwestern part of the East/Japan Sea. The amount of heat supplied by the current was large in the northwestern part and small in the southeastern part of the East/Japan Sea. These features suggest that the heat supplied by the Tsushima Warm Current is restricted to near the surface around the northeastern part and extends to a deeper layer around the southeastern part of the East/Japan Sea.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.816-819
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• 2006

One of the most difficult parameters to measure in the sea is current speed and direction. Recently, efforts are being made to estimate the ocean current vectors by utilizing sequential satellite imageries. In this study, we attempted to estimated sea surface current vector (sscv) by using satellite ocean color imageries of SeaWifs around the Korean Peninsula. This ocean color image data has 1-day sampling interval and spatial resolution of 1x1 km. Maximum cross-correlation method is employed which is aimed to detect similar patterns between sequential images. The estimated current vectors are compared to the surface geostrophic current vectors obtained from altimeter of sea level height data. In utilizing the color imagery data, some limitations and drawbacks exist so that in warm water region where phytoplankton concentration is relatively lower than in cold water region, estimation of sscv is poor and unreliable. On the other hand, two current vector fields agree reasonably well in the Korean South Sea region where high concentration of chlorophyll-a and weak tide is observed. In the future, with ocean color images of shorter sampling interval by COMS satellite, the algorithm and methodology developed in the study would be useful in providing the information for the ocean current around Korean Peninsula.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.103-107
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• 2001

The major studies of an ocean circulation of the East/Japan Sea related to evaluate the feasibility and utilization of deep ocean water are reviewed. The major feature of surface current system of the East/Japan Sea is an inflow of the Tsushima Warm Current through the Korea/Tsushima Strait and the outflow through the Tsugaru and Soya Straits. The Tsushima Warm Current has been known to split into two or three branches in the southern region of the East/Japan Sea. In the cold water region of the East/Japan Sea, the North Korean Cold Current turns to the east near 39$^{\circ}$N after meeting the East Korean Warm Current, then flows eastward. The degree of penetration depends on the strength of the positive wind stress curl, according to the ventilation theory. Various current meter moorings indicate strong and oscillatory deep currents in various parts of the basin. According to some numerical experiments, these currents may be induced by pressure-topography or eddy-topography interaction. However, more investigations are needed to explain clearly the presence of these strong bottom currents. This study concludes the importance of topographical coupling, isopycnal outcropping, different wind forcing and the branching of the Tsushima Warm Current on the circulation of the East/Japan Sea.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.177-184
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• 2003

Numerical simulation on marine wind and sea surface elevation was carried out using both three-dimensional hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic models and a simple oceanic model from 0900 LST, August 13 to 0900 LST, August 15, 1995. As daytime easterly meso-scale sea-breeze from the eastern sea penetrates Kangnung city in the center part as basin and goes up along the slope of Mt. Taegullyang in the west, it confronts synoptic-scale westerly wind blowing over the top of the mountain at the mid of the eastern slope and then the resultant wind produces an upper level westerly return flow toward the East Sea. In a narrow band of weak surface wind within 10km of the coastal sea, wind stress is generally small, less than l${\times}$10E-2 Pa and it reaches 2 ${\times}$ 10E-2 Pa to the 35 km. Positive wind stress curl of 15 $\times$ 10E-5Pa $m^{-1}$ still exists in the same band and corresponds to the ascent of 70 em from the sea level. This is due to the generation of northerly wind driven current with a speed of 11 m $S^{-1}$ along the coast under the influence of south-easterly wind and makes an intrusion of warm waters from the southern sea into the northern coast, such as the East Korea Warm Current. On the other hand, even if nighttime downslope windstorm of 14m/s associated with both mountain wind and land-breeze produces the development of internal gravity waves with a hydraulic jump motion of air near the coastal inland surface, the surface wind in the coastal sea is relatively moderate south-westerly wind, resulting in moderate wind stress. Negative wind stress curl in the coast causes the subsidence of the sea surface of 15 em along the coast and south-westerly coastal surface wind drives alongshore south-easterly wind driven current, opposite to the daytime one. Then, it causes the intrusion of cold waters like the North Korea Cold Current in the northern coastal sea into the narrow band of the southern coastal sea. However, the band of positive wind stress curl at the distance of 30km away from the coast toward further offshore area can also cause the uprising of sea waters and the intrusion of warm waters from the southern sea toward the northern sea (northerly wind driven current), resulting in a counter-clockwise wind driven current. These clockwise and counter-clockwise currents much induce the formation of low clouds containing fog and drizzle in the coastal region.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.187-195
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• 2002

The characteristics of surface circulation in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea are discussed by analyzing a great deal of current data observed by 142 sets of mooring buoy and 58 sets of drifters trajectories collected in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea through domestic and abroad measurements. Some major features are demonstrated as bellow: 1) Tsushima Warm Current flows away from the Kuroshio and has multiple sources in warm half year and comes only from Kuroshio surface water in cold half year. 2) Taiwan Warm Current comes mainly from the Taiwan Strait Water in warm half year and comes from the intruded Kuroshio surface water and branches near 27N in cold half year. 3) The Changjiang Diluted Water turns towards Cheju Island in summer and flows southward along the coastal line in winter. 4) The study sea area is an eddy developing area, especially in the southern area of Cheju Island and northern area of Taiwan.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.207-213
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• 2008

An interest in deep-sea measurements has been gradually increased in association with global warming and the need for deep-sea resources development. Long-term mooring of current meters has been recently conducted primarily for these purposes. In general, current meters equipped on a mooring line are deployed and recovered for a planned period in the sea. This paper describes all the preparations for deep-sea mooring. It also reviews the possible causes of the failures of recovery, which occasionally happens in the sea.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.180-183
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• 2008

This paper is about the ocean current power generation using sea water incoming into the lake surrounded by barrages and sea water discharged from a dam made of artificial structures. In operation of a tidal power plant, the sea water discharged from a turbine structure and a gate structure of a tidal power plant is faster than the tidal current caused by tides in nature and has better characteristics than that to run ocean current turbines. It is shown that the sea water discharged after generating electricity through a turbine generator of a tidal power plant and the sea water discharged from a gate structure of a tidal dam still have kinetic energy high enough to run an ocean current turbine and produce valuable electricity.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.1021-1032
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• 1997

Satellite-tracked drifters deployed in the East Sea since 1991 are used to study the Tsushima Current (TC). It is found that the TC is a steady current with a mean speed of 10 cm/s before it enters the East Sea. Only during the summer, the TC flows along Honshu Island with a mean speed of $30\~40\;cm/s$ and then exits through the Tsugaru Strait. In fall and winter, the TC does not follow the coast along Honshu Island but it enters into the interior of the East Sea before it reaches the Tsugaru Strait. The water that passes the West Channel of the Korea Strait mostly comes from the western East China Sea and spreads into the interior of the East Sea. It also forms the large eddies in the southern East Sea. The outflow through the Tsugaru Strait comes from the interior of the East Sea in all seasons except summer. The mean speed of the Tsugaru Strait outflow is about 60 cm/s. The largest current variability is found in the eastern central area of the East Sea, south of sub-polar front.