Effects of the Yellow Sea Warm Current on the winter temperature distribution in a numerical model

The temperature distribution and circulation patterns in the Yellow Sea (YS) are examined by using a wave‐tide‐circulation coupled numerical model. This model sufficiently reproduces the variation of the warm tongue structure of the Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) from the double branches flowing along the YS Trough and the western 60 m isobath in January to the single stream along the western temperature front in March. This is observed in both the long‐term monthly climatology and the satellite‐based sea surface temperature images in recent years. Examining the local heat balance in the numerical model during the entire cooling period, it is found that the YSWC has a very important influence on the YS warm tongue structure. Compared with the surface cooling, the influence of the advection is small in the coastal shallow area but large in the deep warm tongue area (up to 50% of the magnitude of heat flux). Although bathymetry is the essential factor which causes the temperature front, the YSWC is the key factor which positions, shapes, and maintains the warm tongue structure. This helps to affirm the existence of the YSWC, at least as a monthly mean flow. However, more high‐resolution current observations in deeper layers west of Cheju Island and the western fork of the YS Trough are needed to confirm the existence of the YSWC and its characteristic timescale in the real YS.