The Sea Journal of the Korean Society of Oceanography ISSN:1226-2978(Print) 2671-8820(Online) 한국해양학회지 바다

We for the first time made a successful longest continuous sectional observation in the East Sea by an underwater glider during 95 days from September 18 to December 21 2020 in the Korea along the 106 Line (129.1 °E ~ 131.5 °E at 37.9 °N) of the regular shipboard measurements by the National Institute of Fishery Science (NIFS) and obtained twelve hydrographic sections with high spatiotemporal resolution. The glider was deployed at 129.1 °E in September 18 and conducted 88-days flight from September 19 to December 15 2020, yielding twelve hydrographic sections, and then recovered at 129.2 °E in December 21 after the last 6 days virtual mooring operation. During the total traveled distance of 2550 km, the estimated deviation from the predetermined zonal path had an average RMS distance of 262 m. Based on these high-resolution long-term glider measurements, we conducted a comparative study with the bi-monthly NIFS measurements in terms of spatial and temporal resolutions, and found distinguished features. One is that spatial features of sub-mesoscale such as sub-mesoscale frontal structure and intensified thermocline were detected only in the glider measurements, mainly due to glider’s high spatial resolution. The other is the detection of intramonthly variations from the weekly time series of temperature and salinity, which were extracted from glider’s continuous sections. Lastly, there were deviations and bias in measurements from both platforms. We argued these deviations in terms of the time scale of variation, the spatial scale of fixed-point observation, and the calibration status of CTD devices of both platforms.