Recent Trends of Abnormal Sea Surface Temperature Occurrence Analyzed from Buoy and Satellite Data in Waters around Korean Peninsula

Abstract

In this study a tendency of abnormal sea surface temperature (SST) occurrence in the seas around South Korea is analyzed from daily SST data from satellite and 14 buoys from August 2020 to July 2021. As thresholds 28°C and 4°C are used to determine marine heatwaves(MHWs) and abnormal low water temperature (ALWT), respectively, because those values are adopted by the National Institute of Fisheries Science for the breaking news of abnormal temperature. In order to calculate frequency of abnormal SST occurrence spatially by using satellite SST, research area was divided into six areas of coast and three open seas. ALWT dominantly appeared over a wide area (7,745 km2) in Gyeonggi Bay for total 94 days and it was also confirmed from buoy temperature showing an occurrence number of 47 days. MHWs tended to be high in frequency in the coastal areas of Chungcheongdo and Jeollabukdo and the south coastal areas while in case of buoy temperature Jupo wasthe place of high frequency (32 days). This difference wassupposed to be due to the low accuracy ofsatellite SST at the coasts. MHWs are also dominant in offshore waters around Korean Peninsula. Although detecting abnormal SST by using satellite SST has advantage of understanding occurrence from a spatial point of view, we also need to perform detection using buoys to increase detection accuracy along the coast.