Long-term current observations are made in the Korea Strait for the first time. Eleven bottom-mounted acoustic Doppler current profilers returned high quality current profile measurements along two lines, west and east of Tsushima Island for nearly a year. A high velocity current core was found to exist on the western slope of the strait west of Tsushima Island for the entire recording period. Tsushima Island disrupted the current flow towards the northeast to such an extent that a counter current commonly existed in the island shadow. Currents with tides flowing towards the northeast along the strait exceeded 120 cm/s while non-tidal currents were found to range over 45 cm/s.

This work was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (program element PE0601153N) as part of the following basic research projects:  "Yellow and East China Seas Response to Winds and Currents"  (YES),  "Linkages of Asian Marginal Seas" (LINKS), and Japan/East Sea Program (JES).

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Bill Teague at teague@nrlssc.navy.mil