An analysis on the mean sea level change of the seas adjacent to Korea

Monthly changes of sea level recorded on the seas adjacent to Korea (the Huanghai Sea, the East ChinaSea and the East As) are investigated. The major influences on the spatial and temporal variation of mean sea level arequantitatively identified. A set of modes of monthly air pressure variation over the Huanghai Sea, East China Sea andEast Sea for the period of 1978-1992 is obtained. Each monthly air pressure distribution can be precisely defined bylinear combination of these modes. Hence, the set of air pressure series can be replaced by a set of time varying coefficents, where each coefficient describes the contribution of a particular mode to a given air pressure distribution. A selected set of the modal coefficients is then added to a multiple Fegresion model, consisting of a trend, monthly wind stress and tidal term, in an attempt to represent the effect of meteorological variations on monthly mean sea level on the seas adjacent to Korea. It is found that although the model may account for over 90% of the observed mean sea level variance, there still remains a high correlation between the residuals, hence identifying a regional variation for further study.