Estimation of Geostrophic Current Calculated from Sea Surface Topography in East Sea

This paper deals with the estimation of geostrophic current using the sea surface topography calculated from the geoidal height from EGM96 geopotential model and the mean sea surface height from CLS_SHOM mean sea surface model. The CLS_SHOM model was developed using the altimetry data set. The estimation of geostrophic current is available in the characteristic research of ocean in many country, while for East Sea a few studies were done. The goal of this study is basically to provide the characteristics of geostrophic current in East Sea. The results show that the mean sea surface topography (SST) in East Sea is about 0.37 m and the mean geostrophic velocity is -0.028 m/sec. The Pacific water enters into the East Sea through the Korea Strait and after passing the strait, this inflow splits into two branches: one flows northward along the Korean coast and another outflows into Pacific ocean through Tsugaru and Soya strait passing the east-northeastward along the Japanese outer shelf, and outflows into Okhotsk ocean.