Comparison of Internal Waves in Various Ocean Fields Around the Korean Peninsula

Abstract

Kim, H.; Son, Y.B.; Jeong, J.-Y., and Jo, Y.-H., 2018. Comparison of Internal Waves in Various Ocean Fields around the Korean Peninsula. In: Shim, J.-S.; Chun, I., and Lim, H.S. (eds.), Proceedings from the International Coastal Symposium (ICS) 2018 (Busan, Republic of Korea). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 85, pp. 466–470. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.The sea surrounding the Korean Peninsula is roughly divided into the western part (the Yellow Sea (YS) and the South Sea (SS); shallow inland sea) and the eastern part (the East Sea (ES); drastically deep). While internal wave (IW) studies have been mainly localized because of the complicated environmental conditions around the Korean Peninsula, this study determined the differences of the IWs in various ocean fields for over three years (2013–2015). First, satellite measurements with high spatial and temporal resolutions from Landsat 8 and the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) were used. The curvature analysis was used to define and compare the shapes of the objective factors of the IWs, such as sizes, ovalities, and maximum wavelengths. In the YS, IWs appeared at a densely spaced interval compared with the ES and the maximum wavelength of the packet was nonlinearly increased with depth, and that of the YS (1.1 km) was about 10 times larger than and ES (10.6 km). In addition, the standard deviations of the wavelengths in a packet, which can determine the irregularity of the within-packet spacings from front to rear; were 0.2 and 1.4 for the YS and ES, respectively. Second, the ocean temperature and salinity data from HYCOM and Korteweg-de Vries equation were used to calculate the theoretical phase speed of IWs. Typically, the IW phase speed increased nonlinearly with the water depth; and the mean value was approximately 0.1–0.7 m/s and 0.9–1.7 m/s for the YS and ES, respectively.