Characteristics of Tidal Current and Tidal Residual Current in the Chunsu Bay, Yellow Sea, Korea based on Numerical Modeling Experiments

Abstract

This study is based on a series of numerical modeling experiments to understand the circulation and its change in the Chunsu Bay (CSB), Yellow Sea of Korea. A skill analysis was performed for the tidal height and tidal current of the observation data using the amplitude and phase of the 4 major tidal constituents respectively for verification of modeling experimental results. As a result, most of the skill score was seen to be over 90%, so numerical model experiment results can be said to be in good agreement with the observed tidal height and tidal current. Tidal wave proceeded from the entrance of the CSB towards inside, and the tidal range gradually increased to the north. It took about 10 to 30 minutes for the tidal wave to reach to northern end. The tidal wave showed a characteristic to rotate counter-clockwise in the southern part. The tidal current flowed to the north-south direction along the bottom topography; the angle of the major axis appeared alongside the isobath. It showed the characteristics of reversing tidal current with the minor axis less than 10% of the major axis. The strength of the tidal residual current that is influenced by geographical factors including bathymetry and coastline showed the range of 1~30 cm/sec, greater in the south channel and smaller in northern Bay. Two pairs of cyclonic/anti-cyclonic eddies around Jukdo and 3~4 pairs of strong eddies at the southern part of CSB in hundreds of m to a few km size by relative vorticity derived from the tidal residual current. PU - 한국해안,해양공학회