An abnormal sea surface warming event as Typhoon Bolaven passes the Yellow Sea

The ocean response to typhoon is usually characterized by a cooling on the sea surface. In August 2012, however, a warming (instead of cooling) event occurs in the Yellow Sea outside Mokpo, South Korea, as the typhoon Bolaven (2012) passes. This study gives a report of this abnormal sea surface warming, and provides an exploration of the underlying dynamical processes. It is found that the event coincides in location with the Yellow Sea Surface Cold Patch (SCP) outside Mokpo; Typhoon Bolaven (2012) suppresses the surface cooling due to SCP and hence leads to the abnormal warming. Of the two basic mechanisms that account for the formation of SCPs, i.e., tidal mixing and upwelling, the latter shows a drastic response to the typhoon passage−the upwelling is turned into a downwelling. The downwelling arises from the onshore Ekman transport generated by the northward wind stress on the left hand side of the Mokpo SCP.