Japan Sea Thermohaline Structure and Circulation. Part I: Climatology

In this study, the U.S. Navy’s Generalized Digital Environmental Model (GDEM) climatological temperature and salinity data on a 0.5° × 0.5° grid is used to investigate the seasonal variabilities of the Japan/East Sea (JES) thermohaline structure and circulations. The GDEM for the JES was built up on historical (1930–97) 136 509 temperature and 52 572 salinity profiles. A three-dimensional estimate of the absolute geostrophic velocity field was obtained from the GDEM temperature and salinity fields using the P-vector method. The seasonal variabilities of the thermohaline structure and the inverted currents such as the Subpolar Front, the salinity minimum and maximum in the Japan Sea Intermediate Water, and the Tsushima Warm Current and its bifurcation are identified.