Variabilities of Temperature and Current in the East China Sea Related to the Variability of the Kuroshio in the Southern East China Sea

Abstract

Kuroshio flowing on the shelf break of the East China Sea (ECS) has a major influence on the temperature and current fields in the ECS. We investigated the variabilities of temperature and current in the ECS related to the transport of theKuroshio in the southern ECS using HYCOM data. There is a tendency that temperature in the northeast of Taiwan is high when the Kuroshio transport is small, which implies large intrusion of warm water across the continental shelf since on-shelf intrusion is obvious when the Kuroshio transport is small. In the current fields, northeastward/southwestward anomalies through the Taiwan strait are shown when the Kuroshio transport is large/small, implying the Taiwan Warm Current transports more/less water into the ECS. It is also shown that the Cheju Warm Current, which rounds Cheju island clockwise and flows eastward through the Cheju strait, and current through the Korea strait are related to the Kuroshio transport.