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Role of cold water and beta-effect in the formation of the East Korean Warm Current in the East/Japan Sea: a numerical experiment

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Abstract

The contributions of bottom cold water and planetary β-effect to the formation of the East Korean Warm Current (EKWC), the western boundary current in the East/Japan Sea (EJS), were evaluated using an idealized three-dimensional numerical model. The model results suggest that the bottom cold water and, to a lesser extent, the planetary β-effect both contribute to the formation of the EKWC. The cold water functions as the bottom of the upper layer, to control the EKWC via conservation of potential vorticity. It is known that cold waters, such as the North Korean Cold Water and Korea Strait Bottom Cold Water often observed during summer along the southwestern coast of the EJS, originate from the winter convection in the northern area. Observational studies consistently show that the EKWC strengthens in summer when the cold water extends further south along the western boundary.

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Funding

The hydrographic station data utilized in this study are provided by the NIFS (National Institute of Fisheries Science), Republic of Korea. This work was supported by an in-house project of the Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology (PE99606). Y.-K. Cho was supported by the “Deep Water Circulation and Material Cycling in the East Sea” project, funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Korea (20160400). Y.H. Kim was partly supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant NRF-2016M1A2A2948277 funded by the Korean government (MSIP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences/Research Institute of Oceanography, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Yong-Yub Kim & Yang-Ki Cho

  2. Physical Oceanography Division, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Busan, 49111, Republic of Korea

    Young Ho Kim

Authors
  1. Yong-Yub Kim
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  2. Yang-Ki Cho
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  3. Young Ho Kim
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Correspondence to Young Ho Kim.

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Responsible Editor: Tal Ezer

This article is part of the Topical Collection on the 9th International Workshop on Modeling the Ocean (IWMO), Seoul, Korea, 3-6 July 2017

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Kim, YY., Cho, YK. & Kim, Y.H. Role of cold water and beta-effect in the formation of the East Korean Warm Current in the East/Japan Sea: a numerical experiment. Ocean Dynamics 68, 1013–1023 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-018-1175-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-018-1175-3

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