Monthly Variation of Water Mass Distribution and Current in the Cheju Strait

Abstract

The monthly observations of hydrography in the Cheju Strait from September 1995 to June 1998 show that the Cheju Strait is occupied mostly by Tsushima Current Water in winter and coastal waters in summer. In summer, the Yangtze Coastal Water appears in the upper layer and cold water in the lower layer. Especially, the Yellow Sea Bottom Cold Water appears in August 1997, and the clockwise flow of warm water along the northwestern coasts of Cheju Island is disturbed by an eastward expansion of the cold water from the northwest. The cold water expansion seems to be partly associated with strong southeasterly winds. Current measurements in the Cheju Strait suggest that there exists steady eastward barotropic component of about 5 cm/sec, which corresponds to 0.2 Sv barotropic transport in the Cheju Strait. Geostropic transport (baroclinic component) ranges from 0.1 Sv in winter to 0.4 Sv in summer. By adding the barotrophic component of 0.2 Sv, the total transport varies from 0.3 Sv to 0.6 Sv, which is consistent with previous estimations. The transport increase in summer seems to be caused by the expansion of coastal water to the Cheju Strait.