Interannual variability and long-term trend of coastal sea surface temperature in Korea

Abstract

Interannual variation and long-term trends of coastal sea surface temperature (SST) in Korea were investigated by analyzing 27 coastal SST time series from 1969 to 2004. Long-term linear increasing trend was remarkable with the rate over 0.02°C/year at almost all the stations. The slope of long-term linear trend was larger at the stations along the eastern coast than in the western and southern regions. It was also noticeable that there was a common tendency of interannual variability with the period of 3-5 years at most of the stations. SST was lower in the 1970's and early 1980's while it was higher in the 1990's and early 2000's after the increase in the late 1980's. The pattern of the interannual variability of SST was similar to that of air temperature. Increasing trend of minimum SST in winter was obvious at most stations and it was larger along the eastern coast, while the linear trend of maximum SST in summer was less definite. Therefore, the decreasing tendency of annual amplitude was mainly due to the increasing tendency of SST in winter.