Analysis of Water Temperature Distribution Characteristics in the Southern Yellow Sea in Spring

In this paper, the US Navy GDEM monthly mean water temperature data with a spatial resolution of 1010 are used to analyze the water temperature distribution characteristics and its evolutional process in the southern Yellow Sea in spring. The analysis results crearly show the evolutional process of water temperature distributions from the vertically homogeneous structure in winter to the stratified structure in summer. It is shown from the analysis results that the horizontal and vertical water temperature structures in spring are more complex than those in winter, and some specific hydrographic phenomena appear in the southern Yellow Sea in spring, for example, Qingdao Cold Water Mass appears in the west of the southern Yellow Sea between 34 40 N and 36 20 N, and a similar cold water mass has been found to appear in the east of the southern Yellow Sea and to be called Inchon Offshore Cold Water Mass. In addition, there are also intermediate cold waters in the sea areas near the two cold water masses.