Seasonal volume transport variation in the Tsushima Warm Current through the Tsushima Straits from 10 years of ADCP observations

Abstract

The seasonal variation in the structure and volume transport of the Tsushima Warm Current through the Tsushima Straits is studied using the acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) data obtained by the ferryboat Camellia between Hakata, Japan and Pusan, Korea from February 1997 to February 2007. A robust estimation method to eliminate the effects of aliasing and tidal signals more accurately leads to a significant increase in the volume transport in winter time compared to the previously reported one by Takikawa et al. (2005) who analyzed this ADCP dataset for the first 5.5 years. The 10 years average of volume transport through the Tsushima Straits is 2.65 Sv, and those through the channels east (CE) and west (CW) of the Tsushima Islands are 1.20 Sv and 1.45 Sv, respectively, which represent a 13% increase and an 8% decrease from those of Takikawa et al. (2005). The transport through the CE increases rapidly from winter to spring and then decreases gradually as winter approaches. On the other hand, the transport through the CW increases gradually from winter to autumn and then decreases rapidly as winter approaches. The transport through the CE is larger than that of through the CW from February to April. The contribution of the Ekman transport near the sea surface, which is not measured with the ADCP, to the seasonal volume transport variation across our ADCP section is not significant.