Abstract
The long-term variability of the summer water properties in the southeastern Yellow Sea is described using the hydrological data. The results indicate warming trend in the upper layer and cooling trend in the deeper layer resulting in a strengthen thermocline. While, the mean and the core temperatures in the southeastern Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass both tend to rise slowly, which are previously thought to be fallen. At the deep layer (below 30 m depth), the temperature cooling trend in summer is even stronger than that in winter, which contradict to the stronger surface heat flux in summer. This study proposes that the strengthen thermocline during warming seasons (spring and summer) prevents the heat transferring from surface to the deep layer across isopycnal lines. Furthermore, combined with the metrological data, the strengthen thermocline induces stronger southward tidal residual current at the deep layer, which facilitates the enhanced complementary wind-driven current induced by the southerly monsoon. Thus, the southward tidal induced residual current effectively contributes to the southward motion of the colder water from the northern area. The declined trending of salinity due to the increase of the Changjiang River discharge can be conducive to the strengthen summer thermocline.
Highlights
The Yellow Sea (YS) is a shallow sea surrounded by the Chinese mainland and the Korean Peninsula
The local water mass in the previous winter is the predecessor of the YSCWM [4]
Li et al focused on the section of 36◦ N and suggested that there was no significant correlation between winter temperature and summer temperature [17], which indicates that the northern part of the YSCWM might be more strongly affected stronger by the seasonal migration
Summary
The Yellow Sea (YS) is a shallow sea surrounded by the Chinese mainland and the Korean Peninsula. It connects with the Bohai Sea in the northwest, the East China Sea in the south, and the Japan Sea in the southeast through Tsushima Strait, which is a typical continental shelf sea (Figure 1a). The depth of the Yellow Sea Trough gradually decreases from 90 m in the northwest of Cheju Island to 60 m in the north Yellow Sea. The water depth on the west side of the trough changes slowly while that on the east side changes dramatically
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