Thermal structure of the East China Sea upper layer observed by a satellite tracked drifter experiment

Abstract

A satellite tracked drifter experiment was conducted to observe thermal structure and surface circulation in the northeastern East China Sea. For this experiment, four ADOS buoys, assembled with surface float and thermister chain, were deployed on August 2007 in southern Jeju-do, where the Kuroshio Branch Current is separated from the main stream. Thermal structure in the upper layer of the northeastern East China Sea was successfully observed during the following 1-3 months. Strong thermo-haline front in a northeast-southwest direction was observed. In the frontal zone, warm and saline Kuroshio origin water intermixes with fresher coastal water and flows toward the Korean Strait. Typhoon Nari, which passed over the East China Sea 20 days after commencement of study, caused distinct signals in the thermal structure and trajectory of buoys. During the typhoon, surface temperature abruptly dropped to about 4°C, while the thermocline formed at 30-50 m depth vanished due to strong vertical mixing. Internal inertial oscillation occurred several days after the typhoon. The fortuitous occurrence of typhoon Nari showed that ADOS buoys can provide useful and accurate air-sea interaction data during typhoons.