Ocean and Polar Research ISSN:2234-7313(Online) Ocean and Polar Research

With the increasing demand for improved marine environments and safety, greater ability to minimize damages to coastal areas from harmful organisms, ship accidents, oil spills, etc. is required. In this regard, an accurate assessment and understanding of current systems is a crucial step to improve forecasting ability. In this study, we examine spatial and temporal characteristics of current systems in the adjacent seas of Jeju Island using a high-resolution regional ocean circulation model. Our model successfully captures the features of tides and tidal currents observed around Jeju Island. The tide form number calculated from the model result ranges between 0.3 and 0.45 in the adjacent seas of Jeju Island, indicating that the dominant type of tides is a combination of diurnal and semidiurnal, but predominantly semidiurnal. The spatial pattern of tidal current ellipses show that the tidal currents oscillate in a northwest-southeast direction and the rotating direction is clockwise in the adjacent seas of Jeju Island and counterclockwise in the Jeju Strait. Compared to the mean kinetic energy, the contribution of tidal current energy prevails the most parts of the region, but largely decreases in the eastern seas of Jeju Island where the Tsushima Warm Current is dominant. In addition, a Lagrangian particle-tracking experiment conducted suggests that particle trajectories in tidal currents flowing along the coast may differ substantially from the mean current direction. Thus, improving our understanding of tidal currents is essential to forecast the transport of marine pollution and harmful organisms in the adjacent seas of Jeju Island.