Trend of Sea Surface Temperature Change near the Korean Peninsula since Industrialization

Abstract

This study examined the change in sea surface temperature (SST) around the Korean peninsula since the industrialization and its possible cause using observation based data from the Hadley Center and the Goddard Institute of Space Studies. Since the industrialization, the SST around the Korean peninsula tends to increase towards present with multi-decadal fluctuations of a gradual reduction from the year 1888 to around 1940 and from 1950 to 1980, and marked increase from 1940 to 1950 and from 1980 to present. The ocean surface warming is larger during boreal winter than in summer and in the south sea than other regions. The multi-decadal SST fluctuations around the Korean peninsula is largely consistent with the negative phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), which fluctuates with periods of about 20 to 50 years. Secondly, the Elniño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), whose low-frequency moves along with the PDO, appears to influence the SST near Korean peninsula in some particular years, especially in recent decades. Overall, the SST around the Korean peninsula has been warming since the industrialization by about 1℃, which is about twice larger than global-mean ocean surface warming, and this long-term warming is aligned with the increase in greenhouse gas concentration as well as local factors such as the PDO.