A PARAMETRIC MODEL FOR THE YELLOW SEA THERMAL VARIABILITY

A thermal parametric model has been developed for analyzing observed r egional sea temperature profiles based on a layered structure of tempe rature fields (mixed layer, thermocline, and deep layers). It contains three major components: (1) a first-guess parametric model, (2) high- resolution profiles interpolated from observed profiles, and (3) fitti ng of high-resolution profiles to the parametric model. The output of this parametric model is a set of major characteristics of each profil e: sea surface temperature, mixed-layer depth, thermocline depth, ther mocline temperature gradient, and deep layer stratification. Analyzing nearly 15,000 Yellow Sea historical (1950-1988) temperature profiles (conductivity-temperature-depth station, 4825; expendable bathythermog raph, 3213; bathythermograph, 6965) from the Naval Oceanographic Offic e's Master Oceanographic Observation Data Set by this parametric model , the Yellow Sea thermal field reveals dual structure: one layer (vert ically uniform) during winter and multilayer (mixed layer, thermocline , sublayer) during summer. Strong seasonal variations were also found in mixed-layer depth, thermocline depth, and thermocline strength.