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The Current System in the Yellow and East China Seas

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The Current System in the Yellow and East China Seas Journal of Oceanography, Vol. 58, pp. 77 to 92, 2002 Review The Current System in the Yellow and East China Seas 1 2 HIROSHI ICHIKAWA * and ROBERT C. BEARDSLEY 1Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima 890-0056, Japan 2Department of Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, U.S.A. (Received 1 June 2001; in revised form 21 September 2001; accepted 21 September 2001) During the 1990s, our knowledge and understanding of the current system in the Keywords: Yellow and East China Seas have grown significantly due primarily to new technolo- ⋅ East China Sea, gies for measuring surface currents and making high-resolution three-dimensional ⋅ Yellow Sea, ⋅ numerical model calculations. One of the most important new findings in this decade Kuroshio, ⋅ is direct evidence of the northward current west of Kyushu provided by satellite- Tsushima Warm Current, tracked surface drifters. In the East China Sea shelf region, these recent studies indi- ⋅ Changjiang River. cate that in winter the Tsushima Warm Current has a single source, the Kuroshio Branch Current in the west of Kyushu, which transports a mixture of Kuroshio Wa- ter and Changjiang River Diluted Water northward. In summer the surface Tsushima Warm Current has multiple sources, i.e., the Taiwan Warm Current, the Kuroshio Branch Current to the north of Taiwan, and the Kuroshio Branch Current west of Kyushu. The summer surface circulation pattern in the East China Sea shelf region changes year-to-year corresponding to interannual variations in Changjiang River discharge. Questions concerning the Yellow Sea Warm Current, the Chinese Coastal Current in the Yellow Sea, the current field southwest of Kyushu, and the deep circu- lation in the Okinawa Trough remain to be addressed in the next decade. 1. Introduction main currents, i.e., the Kuroshio, the Tsushima Warm The Yellow and East China Seas are epi-continental Current (TSWC), and the Yellow Sea Warm Current seas bounded by China, Taiwan, the Ryukyu (Nansei) Is- (YSWC) as shown in Fig. 2 (Nitani, 1972). The Kuroshio lands, Kyushu, and the Korean Peninsula (Fig. 1). The enters the East China Sea (ECS) through the strait be- Ryukyu Islands consist of many islands between tween Taiwan and Yonakunijima Island, the easternmost Tanegashima Island south of Kyushu and Yonakunijima island of the Ryukyu Islands, flows northeastward along Island east of Taiwan. The shelf region shallower than the shelf slope, and exits to the Philippine Sea through 200 m occupies more than 70% of the entire Yellow and the Tokara Strait after turning eastward near 30°N. The East China Seas. In the southern and eastern East China TSWC flows into the Japan Sea through the Tsushima Sea lies the deep Okinawa Trough, in which the maxi- Strait, and the YSWC flows into the Yellow Sea from the mum water depth decreases from greater than 2000 m in south of Cheju Island (“Cheju” is represented by “Jeju” its southern section to less than 1000 m in its northeast- when one follows the new “Hangeul” Romanization sys- ern section. At depths greater than 600 m, the Okinawa tem announced by the Korean government in July, 2000). Trough is connected with the Philippine Sea only at the (It should be mentioned that hereafter we call the strait Kerama Gap southwest of Okinawa Island. between Taiwan and Yonakunijima Island as the East Tai- In the 1970s, the surface circulation in the Yellow wan Strait, and that Korean oceanographers call the Ja- and East China Seas was considered to consist of three pan Sea the East Sea and the Tsushima Strait the Korean Strait.) It has been thought that the Kuroshio should play an important role in the driving mechanisms of the TSWC * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] and YSWC. The origin of the TSWC is considered to be u.ac.jp the Kuroshio Branch Current west of Kyushu (KBCWK), Copyright © The Oceanographic Society of Japan. which flows northward along 128.5°E over the western 77 Fig. 2. Schematic of the current system in the Yellow and East China Seas after Nitani (1972), together with the 200-m isobath and location of the repeat transect (section PN) where measurements were made quarterly by the Japan Meteorological Agency. The large numbered dots indicate the locations of tidal gauges: (1) Ishigaki (Ishigakijima Is- land), (2) Keelung (Taiwan), (3) Naze (Amami-Ohshima Island), and (4) Nishinoomote (Tanegashima Island). Fig. 1. Bottom topography in the Yellow and East China Seas. The 50-, 100-, and 200-m isobaths are shown within the green area where the water depth is less than or equal to 500 m. The light blue colored area denotes water depths rather sporadic and obtained in different years. This has between 500 and 1000 m. Water deeper than 1000 m is led to many different interpretations of the circulation in colored dark blue, with the 2000-m isobath included. Num- the Yellow Sea and ECS in the late 1980s. For example, bers indicate the locations of the following: (1) Taiwan there are two schools of thought on the origin of the Strait, (2) Tokara Strait, (3) Tsushima Strait, (4) Kerama TSWC. One school says that the TSWC is a continuation Gap, (5) Taiwan, (6) Yonakunijima Island, (7) Okinawa Is- of the KBCWK that has split from the Kuroshio south- land, (8) the Okinawa Trough, and (9) Changjiang River west of Kyushu (Kondo, 1985; Lie and Cho, 1994), while mouth. the other school says that the source of the TSWC is the Taiwan Warm Current (TWWC), which flows northward through the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China (e.g., flank of the northeastern Okinawa Trough. In this paper, Beardsley et al., 1985; Fang et al., 1991; Su, 1998; Isobe, the traditionally used name “Tsushima Warm Current” 1999). represents only the current flowing through the Tsushima During the 1990s, our knowledge and understand- Strait, and the northward current west of Kyushu is called ing of the current system in the Yellow Sea and ECS have the “Kuroshio Branch Current west of Kyushu” as pro- improved significantly due primarily to new technologies posed by Lie et al. (1998a). The origin of the YSWC is for measuring surface currents and conducting high-reso- considered to be the current bifurcated from the KBCWK lution three-dimensional numerical circulation model south of Cheju Island. experiments. The aim of this paper is to summarize re- As fishing activity in the Yellow Sea and ECS has cent developments in the study of the current system in been too strong to allow long-term moored current-meter the Yellow Sea and ECS using historical data analysis measurements, the circulation pattern in the Yellow Sea and numerical model solutions. Relevant review on the and ECS has been examined through analysis of current pattern in the Yellow and East China Seas up to hydrographic and very limited current measurement data. the early 1990s can be found in Su (1998). Vertical sec- However, these data used in many previous studies are tions across the Kuroshio in the central ECS and hori- 78 H. Ichikawa and R. C. Beardsley zontal distributions of water properties near the 50-m moored current-meter data, Fang et al. (1991) estimated depth layer in the Yellow Sea and ECS will be presented the volume transport of TWWC to be 1.0 Sv in winter in Section 2. In Section 3, the main features of surface and 3.1 Sv in summer. From table 5 in Ichikawa and circulation pattern derived by analysis of historical data Beardsley (1993), the mean Kuroshio volume transport will be presented, followed by a description of the cur- through the Tokara Strait from February 1987 to Septem- rent pattern found in recent numerical model studies in ber 1988 is estimated to be 24 Sv. Using moored-array Section 4. Combining the results in Sections 2, 3 and 4, measurements made during 1992–1996, Feng et al. (2000) the origin of the TSWC will be discussed in Section 5. estimated the mean total volume transport through the The important but unsolved problems on the current sys- Tokara Strait to be 23.4 Sv, assuming no vertical velocity tem in the Yellow Sea and ECS will be presented in Sec- shear from the sea surface to the top measurement depth tion 6. level (50-m to 280-m) at each mooring site. From sea level difference across the Tokara Strait (Naze minus 2. Seasonal Mean Distributions Derived from Nishinoomote) in 1965–1983, Kawabe (1988) indicated Hydrographic Data that the Kuroshio volume transport is maximum in sum- mer and minimum in autumn while its annual cycle 2.1 Seasonal variations of external forcing changes year to year. Kawabe indicated also that the Water properties and the general circulation in the Kuroshio velocity in the Tokara Strait has large Yellow Sea and ECS are strongly influenced by external interannual variations with dominant periods of longer forcing from its surroundings, i.e., the atmosphere, the than five years and around 2.1 years. Takikawa et al. land, and the ocean. The wind over the Yellow Sea and (2001) analyzed the ship-mounted Acoustic Doppler Cur- ECS is monsoonal, northwestward in summer and south- rent Profiler (ADCP) data taken six times a week by a eastward in winter. From surface weather maps collected ferryboat crossing the Tsushima Strait from February 1997 during 1978–1987, Na et al. (1992) calculated monthly to February 2001. They found that the total volume trans- mean wind stress over the Yellow Sea and ECS and found port through the Tsushima Strait is a minimum in winter a maximum southward wind stress of about 1 dyne cm–2 and maximum in autumn, with an annual mean of about in January over the Yellow Sea and ECS and a maximum 2.7 Sv.
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