Geostrophic current estimation of the East Sea of the Korean peninsula using recent MSS and geoid data

This study utilized several models to analyze thermohaline circulation. Specifically, it employed mean sea surface (MSS) models DTU21, CLS22, and SDUST2020 which were derived by averaging open-source sea surface height data observed via satellite altimetry over a specified period. Additionally, geoid models calculated from gravity field observation data WHU-SEPU-GOGR2022S, EGM2008, and XGM2019e_2159 were incorporated. These models were subsequently used to compute the mean sea surface height and geoid height, from which sea surface topography was derived to facilitate the analysis of geostrophic current patterns. Surface currents are tracked using surface floats, but the overall flow is difficult to capture due to the influence of specific areas, wind direction, water temperature, etc. In this study, we analyzed the geostrophic current, and the results showed that the sea surface topography in the East Sea was calculated to be 28.8 m on average, and the average velocity of the geostrophic current was calculated to be 2.07 cm/sec.