• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.882-889
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• 2022

In this study, to understand the factors influencing the flow change the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC), the correlation between the volume transport the TWC, El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) was analyzed. A calculation of the monthly volume transport of TWC for 25 years (1993-2018) revealed that the seasonal fluctuation cycle was the largest in summer and smallest in winter. Power spectrum analysis to determine the periodicity of the TWC volume transport, Oceanic Niño Undex (ONI), and PDO indicated that the TWC volume transport peaked at a one year cycle, but ONI and PDO showed no clear cycle. Further, to understand the correlation between the TWC transport volume and ONI and PDO, the coherence estimation method was used for analysis. The coherence of ONI and PDO had a high mutual contribution in long-period fluctuations of three years or more but had low mutual contribution in short-period fluctuations within one year. However, the coherence value between the two factors of the TWC volume transport and PDO was 0.7 in the 0.8-1.2 year cycle, which had a high mutual contribution. Meanwhile, the TWC volume transport and PDO have an inverse correlation between period I (1993-2002) and period III (2010-2018). When the TWC maximum transport volume (2.2 Sv or more) was high, the PDO index showed a negative value below -1.0, and the PDO index showed a positive value when the TWC maximum transport volume was (below 2.2 Sv). Therefore, using long-term PDO index data, changes in the TWC transport volume and water temperature in the East Sea coastal area could be predicted.