An Investigation on the Variations of Sea Level Due to Meteorological Disturbances on the Coast of Japanese Islands(II)* Storms Surges on the Coast of the Japan Sea
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Journal of the Oceanographical Society of Japan Vol.24, No.4, pp. 178 to 190, August 1968 An Investigation on the Variations of Sea Level due to Meteorological Disturbances on the Coast of Japanese Islands(II)* Storms Surges on the Coast of the Japan Sea Ichiro ISOZAKI** Abstract: Storm surges on the eastern coastal line of the Japan Sea are studied. In contrast with the Pacific coast, extraordinary destructive surges hardly develop there because shallow waters such as bays or a continental shelf are comparatively small. Generally speaking, the effect of atmospheric pressure is roughly hydrostatic, and northeasterly winds cause the descent of sea level and southwesterly winds the ascent of it since the shore line runs from southwest to northeast. However, the fluctuations of sea level are different remarkably according to the course of atmospheric disturbances as well as topography of the coast. Case studies are made in detail for four storms which took different courses. In some cases we can clearly recognize a typical external surge which follows the storm considerably later at a very low speed of about 3•`4m/sec along the continental shelf from the southern entrance of the sea to Noto Peninsula. Its low speed is explained by assuming a shelf wave of Robinson's type. A curious fact that the sea level sinks before the arrival of the storm is also discussed. to northeast, we can find peculiar surges on the 1. Introduction San'in coast, western half of the region in ques- In Japan, severe storm surges occur mainly in tion, which progresses very slowly as a kind of bays on Pacific coast having their mouth south- free wave and arrives at the coast considerably ward, such as Tokyo Bay, Ise Bay and Osaka late after the storm passed away. SHOJI (1961) Bay. Indeed, at the head of these bays, ab- suggested that this wave might be an internal normal damages have frequently been caused by Kelvin wave induced by a progressive typhoon, the storm surges due to typhoons. Therefore but he could not sufficiently verify validity of the storm surges in such bays were studied ex- the assumption because of scantiness of observed tensively and useful results were obtained by data. many investigators. On the other hand, the When a typhoon crosses West Japan from storm surge on the coast facing open sea directly, south to north and then moves to the eastern especially on the coast of the Japan Sea, has been part of the Japan Sea, atmospheric pressure falls scarecely examined on account of its insignificant considerably and strong northerly winds blow height and rather scanty observation. over the San'in coast. Nevertheless sea level UNOKI (1959) pointed out that there were no does not rise but falls (TANIOKA, 1959). The remarkable storm surges in recent several ten cause of this phenomenon is not yet, well years on the coast of the Japan Sea, and that the known. height of surge was less than 100 cm except for In this paper, the author attempts to clarify Iwasaki. The variation of sea level differs re- the features of such storm surges on the Japan markably according to the course of atmospheric Sea coast of Japan. disturbances. When a typhoon moves across the middle part of the Japan Sea from southwest 2. Data and method of analysis * Received May 29, 1968 Hourly readings of sea level at fourteen tide ** Meteorological Research Institute, Tokyo gage stations are used. Locations of the stations (32) An Investigation on the Variations of Sea Level due to Meteorological Disturbances 179 on the Coast of Japanese Islands (II) Table 1. List of tide gage stations. * Authority G: Geographical Survey Institute Fig. 1. Location of tide gage stations and maxi- H: Hydrographic Office mum storm surge observed at each station M: Japan Meteorological Agency during1953•`1962. are shown in Fig. 1 and Table 1. Eleven of corded at each station is presentied in Fig. 1. them are situated along the Japan Sea coast, At all stations except Iwasaki, the surge height while Tomie, Izuhara and Shimonoseki face the was less than 1 m. Only at Iw4saki, we can East China Sea, the Korean Channel and the find a height of surge higher then 1m. The Straits of Kammon, respectively. The period surge with the peak value of 122cm, was caused for the used data is ten years from 1953 to by Typhoon Marie, Sept. 27, 1954. Nine of the 1962. fourteen surges mentioned above were generated The height of meteorological tide or storm by extratropical cyclones which passed through surge was obtained by subtracting predicted tides the Japan Sea in winter or spring, and five were from the observed ones. In predicting the astro- due to typhoons which crossed the Japan Sea. nomical tide, fifteen tidal constituents were taken At five stations, Wakkanai, Iwasaki, Sakai, in most cases and the monthly mean sea level Tomie and Shimonoseki, the biggest surge was was assumed to coincide with the mean of ob- brought about by typhoons and at other stations served levels. The astronomical tide is incons- it was attributed to extratropical cyclones. This picuous in the Japan Sea and the estimated is in contrast with the circumstances on the surge height is of sufficient accuracy. In the Pacific coast, where remarkable storm surges neiboring seas to which Izuhara and Tomie face, with height exceeding three meters or so, are however, the astronomical tide is rather great, always caused by typhoons. so thirty constituents of tide were used (See The tracks of the fourteen atmospheric dis- ISOZAKI, 1968). turbances in question are given in Fig. 2. From The number of atmospheric disturbances which the figure we can clearly recognize that the severe caused a storm surge with height exceeding 40 surges on the Japan Sea coast were never caused cm at any of the tide gage stations on the coast of by the storms which progressed eastward on the the Japan Sea was fourteen for ten years. Table Pacific side of Japan. It should be also kept in 2 gives the maximum height in each case at the mind that northerly winter monsoon from the respective stations. The maximum height re- Asian Continent does not generate heavy storm (33) 180 Jour. Oceanogr. Soc. Japan, Vol.24, No.4 (1968) (34) An Investigation on the Variations of Sea Level due to Meteorological Disturbances 181 on the Coast of Japanese Islands (II) Fig. 2. The tracks of typhoons and extratropical cyclones which caused severe storm surges Fig. 3. Track of Typhoon Sarah, Sept. 17-18, on the Japan Sea coast of Japan. 1959. Thin lines indicate the typhoon position when the maximum storm surge appeared at surges in spite of its great strength, long dura- each station. tion and direction normal to the coast, because of narrowness of shallow water in the Japan Sea. The storms which bring about surges on the 18th of September, 1959. The central pressure Japan Sea coast may be roughly divided into of the typhoon kept about 970mb during its three groups according to their tracks since the passage over the Japan Sea, and considerable surges generated by them are considerably dif- damages were caused on the Japan Sea coast by ferent from each other. They are (A) storms accompanied wind waves and storm surges. that enter the Japan Sea after crossing Korea or The track of the typnoon is represented by a Korean Channel and moves away northeast heavy line in Fig. 3. The successive position of through the middle of the Japan Sea, (B) storms the center of typhoon is connected by a straight that travel northward over the western part of line with the station at which highest surge is the Japan Sea after crossing Kyushu, and (C) observed simultaneously. It is noticeable that the storms that advance from West Japan toward sea level becomes highest considerably later than the eastern part of the Japan Sea. Atmospheric the time of the nearest approach of the strom, disturbances belonging to Group A are most im- except in the southwestern and northeastern part portant as the source of storm surges. In the of the Sea where the elevation attains its maxi- following sections typical examples of each group mum at the nearest approach of the typhoon. will be examined somewhat in detail. The time lag of the surge from the arrival of the storm is especially large on the coast west of Noto Peninsula. At Shimonoseki and Saigo 3. Case studies we can find two peak levels, the first of which 3.1 Case A: An example where a storm appears at the time of nearest approach of the passes through the middle of the Japan typhoon. Sea from southwest to northeast Time variations of surge height at various Typhoon Sarah entered the Japan Sea through station for five days are presented in Fig. 4. Korean Channel and progressed northeast at a The maximum height is 97 cm at Iwasaki, 56 mean speed of about 45km/hr on the 17th•` cm at Tonoura and 52 cm at Sakai. The dotted (35) 182 Jour. Oceanogr. Soc. Japan, Vol.24, No.4 (1968) indicated by dash-dotted line. It should be noticed that it splits into two parts at Wajima located at the top of Noto Peninsula. Thick arrows represent the time interval in which the surge height exceeds half of the maximum height at each station. The values of maximum height are shown by numerals written close to the arrows, but two values are given when double peaks appeared. From Figs. 3, 4 and 5 it is suggested that the mechanism of the generation of storm surges is different for the following four coastal waters: from Tomie to Shimonoseki, from Shimonoseki to Wajima, from Wajima to Iwasaki, and from Oshoro to Wakkanai.