The southern flux of sea ice in the Tatarskiy Strait, Japan Sea and the generation of the Liman Current

摘要

The circulation in the surface waters of the Japan Sea is driven in part by thermohaline forcing associated with the flux of cold, low-salinity water from the Tatarskiy Strait. Existing numerical models suggest that this water contributes to the Liman Current, which flows from northeast to southwest along the Russian coast. The major source of Japan Sea freshwater is the Amur River, which flows into the sea through Tatarskiy Strait, but has a near-zero minimum during January to March. As an alternate source of freshwater to the surface layer, we derive from meteorological and remote sensing data for the 1992-1994 winters, the magnitude of the freshwater flux generated by the southward transport and melt of pack ice in the Tatarskiy Strait.