Wind‐driven effects on the Yellow Sea Warm Current

Abstract

The Yellow Sea is a shallow basin writh an average depth of 44 m located between China and the Korean Peninsula. One of the dominant ocean circulation features of the Yellow Sea is a warm wrater intrusion known as the Yellow Sea Warm Current. This feature is present throughout the year but reaches its farthest northward extension in winter. The circulation of the Yellow, East China, and Bohai Seas was modeled using the Princeton Ocean Model to better understand the dynamics of the Yellow Sea Warm Current. The horizontal resolution of the model varies from 8 km in the Yellow Sea to 25 km in the East China Sea. Twenty‐four sigma levels are used to define the vertical structure. The model uses daily atmospheric forcing from the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System for 1993. Open boundary conditions are applied at the Taiwan Strait, the Tsushima (Korea) Strait, an area south of Taiwan, and the Tokara Strait, with a closed boundary south of the Ryukyu Islands. The model results are examined to determine the effect of the wind on the northward extension of the warm water intrusion, using both water mass characteristics and northward velocity components. Sensitivity tests and spectrum analyses, performed to study the influence of the wind on the Yellow Sea Warm Current, show that winds modify the pathway and extent of the Yellow Sea Warm Current. The current's origin, however, appears to be due to external forcing from the current systems developed in the East China Sea.