Environ. Res. Lett. 18 (2023) 064015 https://doi.org/10.

1088/1748-9326/acd267

LETTER

The record-breaking 2022 long-lasting marine heatwaves in the

OPEN ACCESS
East China Sea
RECEIVED
2 February 2023 Hyoeun Oh1,∗, Go-Un Kim1, Jung-Eun Chu2, Keunjong Lee1 and Jin-Yong Jeong1,∗
REVISED 1
6 April 2023
Coastal Disaster & Safety Research Department, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Busan, Republic of Korea
2
Low-Carbon and Climate Impact Research Centre, School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong,
ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
People’s Republic of China
4 May 2023 ∗
Authors to whom any correspondence should be addressed.
PUBLISHED
16 May 2023 E-mail: heunoh@kiost.ac.kr and jyjeong@kiost.ac.kr

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Keywords: marine heatwave, extreme events, East Asian summer monsoon, record-breaking 2022
Supplementary material for this article is available online
Abstract
In 2022, record-breaking long-lasting marine heatwaves (MHWs) occurred in the East China Sea
(ECS), which persisted for 62 d during boreal summer. This exceeded the average MHWs duration
of 10 d by a factor of 6. In addition, 2022 was also recorded as a year of many extreme events
throughout Asia, such as summer floods in China and Pakistan, droughts and extreme heat in
Europe, raising the question of whether they were caused by a ‘triple-dip’ La Niña, which has
persisted since September 2020. Here we examine the key local and remote processes that led to the
2022 MHWs in the ECS using mixed-layer heat budget analysis. During the onset of the MHWs, a
salinity-stratified shallow mixed-layer due to the large river discharge from the Yangtze–Huaihe
River floods in June created favorable conditions for warm ocean temperature in the ECS.
Simultaneously, an anomalous anticyclone maintained by the stationary Rossby wave, which is
generated by vorticity forcings in mid-latitudes and thermal forcing in Pakistan, settled in the
corresponding region and led to the long-lasting MHWs until Typhoon Hinnamnor began to
dissipate the wave in early September. This study improves our understanding of the physical
mechanism of flood-related MHWs that have increased with recent climate change.

1. Introduction of the CDW significantly affects the physical and bio-

The annual global mean temperature in 2022 was
the sixth highest recorded since 1880 (www.ncei.
noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/global/
202213). Recently, extreme events have become more
frequent globally [1–3]. Europe and the United States
experienced exacerbated drought conditions dur-
ing the summer, while Pakistan suffered devastat-
ing floods and landslides during monsoon season,
killing 1739 people and destroying over 2.1 million
homes (https://ndma.gov.in/ and https://reliefweb.
int/). In addition, China had a large intraseasonal
variation in monsoon rainfall in 2022, with heavy
rainfall and severe flooding in southern China in
June and severely dry and warm conditions in late
summer. As a result, 2022 June was ranked as the
second-highest year of the Changjiang diluted water
(CDW) river discharge since 1982, and August had
the lowest (www.cjh.com.cn/). Because the intrusion
logical processes in the East China Sea (ECS) [4], it
is crucial to understand how the CDW is affected by
the inland hydrological cycle [5]. Thus, the effect of
extreme rainfall over land is not limited to the land
area but is extended to the oceanographic and eco-
logical environment [6, 7], such as through marine
heatwaves (MHWs) and loss of biodiversity. These
oceanic extremes have remarkably increased and
intensified, especially over most of the East Asian
marginal sea [8–10].
In particular, the summer of 2022 was anom-
alously warm in East Asia, with one of the most
intense MHWs ever recorded in the ECS. MHWs are
influenced by regional atmospheric processes, such as
enhanced incoming shortwave radiation due to high-
pressure system, and by oceanic processes, includ-
ing warm current advection, reduced vertical mixing,
and ocean stratification [11–13]. Furthermore, the
interaction between the atmosphere and ocean also

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd

Environ. Res. Lett. 18 (2023) 064015
controls MHWs; for example, air–sea heat exchanges
via changes in wind speed control mixed-layer and
latent heat fluxes [14, 15]. The MHWs can be affected
not only by the local environment but also by remote
forcings [14, 16]. Possible climate factors that can
change circulation pattern over East Asia include
the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) [16–18],
North Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) [19, 20],
and land–atmosphere interaction [21]. In 2022, La
Niña was recorded as a rare ‘triple-dip’, which had
persisted since September 2020. Although multiple
extreme events for 2022 summer occurred concur-
rently, the relationships between the MHWs, extreme
rainfall-CDW in inland China [6], and La Niña have
not been addressed.
Given that the ECS is a hotspot of torrential rain-
fall from the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM)
and tropical cyclones (TCs) and bounded by a large
land-mass, it is an area where compound hazards can
occur frequently [5], resulting in costly reparation
for the marine ecosystem and fishery activities. This
study investigates the characteristics of the persistent
MHWs in the ECS in 2022, particularly to determine
the dominant factors responsible for the onset, dur-
ation, and retreat of the MHWs and how much the
local-driven diluted water and remote atmospheric
teleconnection contributed to the persistent MHWs.
2. Data and methods
2.1. Data
We used daily SSTs with 1/4 resolution for 41 years
(1982–2022) from the National Oceanic and Atmo-
spheric Administration optimum interpolation SST
(OISST v2) dataset [22, 23]. The atmospheric vari-
ables, including geopotential height and winds at
200/850 hPa, surface net solar/thermal radiation, sur-
face latent/sensible heat flux, and precipitation, were
obtained from the hourly data on a 0.25◦ × 0.25◦ grid
of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather
Forecasts Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) [24]. To estimate the
propagation of Rossby waves in section 3.3, we have
computed wave activity flux (WAF), using the ERA5
datasets. The WAF is useful to understand stationary
disturbances propagating on a zonally varying basic
flow [25]. We also used 1993–2022 water temperature
and zonal and meridional currents from GLORYS12
[26] provided by the Copernicus Marine Environ-
ment Monitoring Service (1◦ /12◦ horizontal grids).
The observational data collected at the Ieodo Ocean
Research Station (I-ORS), located within the north-
ern basin of the ECS (32.12 ◦ N, 125.18 ◦ E), were used.
The I-ORS platform is used to monitor atmospheric
and oceanic variability across multiple timescales [27,
28], such as TCs [29, 30], MHWs [14], the EASM
[31], and CDW [32]. We utilized daily water temper-
ature and salinity, measured at 4.2, 20.5, and 38 m, by
taking an average from 10 min interval from June to
September for 19 years (2004–2022).
2
H Oh et al
2.2. Definition of MHWs
MHWs are detected when SSTs exceed the 90th per-
centile threshold and persist for longer than five con-
secutive days [33]. Here, the 90th percentile threshold
varies seasonally because it is defined by an 11 d win-
dow centered on the calendar day for the 30 years cli-
matology of the daily SST, meaning that the top 10%
of the total 330 d (30 years ∗ 11 d window) for each
calendar day are used as the 90th percentile threshold
[34].
2.3. Mixed-layer heat budget equation
Based on a mixed-layer heat budget analysis, we
explored the relative contributions of the oceanic and
atmospheric processes controlling the evolution of
2022 MHWs in the ECS [35, 36]. The mixed-layer
heat budget using the GLORYS12 datasets was calcu-
lated using the following equation:
∂Tm ∂Tm ∂Tm (Tm − Td )
= −um − vm − wd
∂t ∂x ∂y hm
Qnet
+ , (1)
ρCp hm
where ρ is the reference density of seawater
(1025 kg m−3 ) and Cp is the specific heat of sea-
water at a constant pressure (4000 J kg−1 K−1 ). Tm ,
um , and vm indicate water temperature, zonal current,
and meridional current averaged in the mixed-layer
depth (hm ), respectively. In addition, wd (T d ) repres-
ent the vertical current velocity (water temperature),
at a depth of 10 m below the bottom of the mixed-
layer. The summer mixed-layer depth in the ECS (an
average of ∼16 m) in this study was estimated by
taking an area-average for the region where water
temperature was 0.5 ◦ C lower than the surface value
of each grid.
The left side of equation (1) displays the mixed-
layer water temperature tendency, while the right
side shows mixed-layer horizontal (zonal/meridi-
onal) advection and vertical mixing, including the
effects of upwelling/downwelling and entrainment/-
detrainment. The vertical mixing term was calculated
as a residual. The last term is net surface heat flux
(Qnet ), which is the sum of the surface net shortwave
radiation, surface net longwave radiation, latent heat
flux, and sensible heat flux. The positive (negative)
Qnet show downward (upward) fluxes.
3. Results
3.1. Unprecedented extreme events in 2022
Figure 1(a) shows the spatial distribution of anom-
alous July SST and accumulated land precipitation
around the Yangtze–Huaihe Rivers from June 23–27
2022. Because heavy rainfall continues throughout
the summer over southern China in general, the
river discharge remarkably increased during mon-
soon season [6]. The Yangtze (Changjiang) River dis-
charge flow in June 2022 was the second largest since
Environ. Res. Lett. 18 (2023) 064015 H Oh et al

Figure 1. (a) 2022 mean (shading) and anomaly (contour) of land accumulated precipitation from June 23–27 and July SST. The
green (brown) contours show the positive (negative) precipitation. The hatched lines indicate the significant area above one
standard deviation of each interannual variation from 1982–2022. The black star represents the Ieodo Ocean Research Station
(I-ORS). Interannual variability of (b) June mean discharges for the Yangtze River and (c) the maximum consecutive 5 d
precipitation in June averaged over [27◦ –33◦ N, 113◦ –120◦ E].

1982 (figure 1(b)). A considerable volume of freshwa-
ter was discharged from the river into the ECS, result-
ing in severe damage to fish farms. To determine the
role of extreme precipitation on the river discharge,
we defined excessive rainfall as the maximum con-
secutive 5 d precipitation in June (figure 1(c)). The
extreme and mean precipitation in June were strongly
correlated with the discharge of the river (r = 0.55∗∗
and r = 0.48∗∗ , respectively; ∗∗ means statistically sig-
nificant at a 99% confidence level). According to their
correlations, the river discharge relies more on its
short-term extremes [37, 38]. This implies that severe
floods near the Yangtze–Huaihe Rivers resulting from
the extreme EASM rainfall could be a factor contrib-
uting to increases in river discharge during summer
[39].

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Environ. Res. Lett. 18 (2023) 064015 H Oh et al

Figure 2. Interannual variability of (a) SST and (b) frequency (green bars) and durations (lines) of the MHW in the ECS
[28◦ –34◦ N, 120◦ –128◦ E]. The black solid (blue dashed) lines show (a) SST and (b) the MHW duration from June to September
(July–August). (c) Annual cycles of the SST climatology (black dashed line), the 90th percentile threshold (red line), and 2022 SST
(pink and blue shadings) from June to September. (d) Probability distributions of MHW duration of each grid in the ECS for
climatology (black line) and 2022 (red line).

Previous studies revealed a lag of 2–4 weeks
between the low-salinity water from the Yangtze River
and MHW in the ECS [40, 41]. With the consider-
able quantity of accumulated precipitation in June,
the salinity and temperature of the water in the ECS
in July would be altered by the excessive rainfall, trig-
gering the CDW through changes in shallow mixed-
layer depth [14, 42]. The daily salinity at a depth
of 4.2 m, observed at the I-ORS (figure S1(a)), can
explain the input timing of the diluted water. The rel-
atively low salinity water with a value below 30 PSU
was observed starting on June 27, and it remained
for over a month. Moreover, the associated warm
temperature and ocean stratification were found in
July (figure S1(b)). Therefore, we can understand that
the salinity-stratified water created favorable condi-
tions for the MHWs in the ECS.
Figure 2(a) shows the interannual variation of the
summer SST in the ECS (June to September, JJAS).
Overridden with the global warming trend [43], the
SST in 2022 exhibited the highest value during the
analysis period. The increases in SST can result in
the distinctive features of MHWs. Here, the frequency
and duration of the MHW in the ECS are shown
(figure 2(b)). While the summer of 2021 experienced
maximum MHW frequency with relatively low dur-
ation, only one event was recorded the next summer
that lasted for 62 d. Compared to the averaged fre-
quency of two times and duration of 10 d, the dur-
ation of the 2022 MHW event exceeded the aver-
age duration by a factor of 6, which was the longest
recorded since 1982. In addition, we found that most
of the MHW days were concentrated in July–August
(JA) owing to the warmer mean SST (blue lines in

4
Environ. Res. Lett. 18 (2023) 064015
figures 2(a) and (b)). Figure 2(c) shows the seasonal
evolution of SST in the ECS, with its climatology
and 90th percentile threshold to illustrate the onset,
peak, and retreat dates of the MHW event in 2022.
The MHW in the ECS began on June 30, peaked
on July 16 at maximum magnitude of over 2.84 ◦ C
above the daily climatology, and lasted approximately
2 months, ending in early September. This unpre-
cedented persistence of the MHW might be biased
due to the area-averaged mean, since it is known that
identifying MHWs is vulnerable to resolution lim-
its, which might result in an overestimation of its
duration [44, 45]. Therefore, the probability distribu-
tion function on the duration of the MHWs for each
grid is shown in figure 2(d). The individual MHWs
for most grids lasted considerably longer than the cli-
matology, which proves that it was not a bias caused
by averaging the area of the ECS. Still, what caused
the unprecedentedly long-lasting MHWs in summer
remains unclear.
3.2. What caused the long-lasting MHW?
To understand the 2022 MHW in the ECS, we con-
ducted a diagnostic analysis based on the mixed-
layer heat budget equation. Figure 3(a) shows the
mixed-layer water temperature tendency, zonal and
meridional advection, and net surface heat flux,
which consists of the surface net shortwave and
longwave radiation, and sensible and latent heat
flux. The residual term denotes the vertical mixing,
which includes the effects of upwelling and entrain-
ment in the case of the positive sign and down-
welling and detrainment in the case of the negative
sign.
During heavy rainy days in the ECS in June, the
decrease in the shortwave radiation caused by the
increased cloud cover led to a negative SST tend-
ency (figures 3(b) and (c)). The MHW began on
1 July 2022. A positive water temperature tendency
was recorded approximately 3 d before the MHW
occurred. This positive warming tendency is gen-
erally related to ocean stratification caused by the
low-salinity water from the river at the surface. The
salinity-induced barrier layer reduces vertical heat
exchange between the surface and middle layers of
the ocean. Furthermore, strong Ekman downwelling
and enhanced shortwave radiation from the high-
pressure enhance this warm tendency [14]. During
onset of the MHWs, the ocean dynamics played a cru-
cial role in the warm water conditions for approxim-
ately 10 d since the MHWs occurred (figure 3(a)).
The spatial distribution of the low-salinity water
in satellite observations also shows that a large
amount of the CDW was released by late-June, peaked
and started to disappear around mid-July in the
southern part of Jeju Island (figure S2). From mid-
July, the effects of the shortwave radiation on SST
warming were dominant as the anticyclonic circula-
tion persisted (figure 3(b)). The low-salinity water
5
H Oh et al
affected the onset and development of the MHWs
in early July, and the shortwave radiation caused by
the higher atmospheric pressure anomalies played a
major role in the MHWs persistency from mid-July to
late-August. Finally, the MHWs declined in approx-
imately two months because Typhoon Hinnamnor
blocked the sun light and intensified the wind speed
on September 3 (figures 3 and 4). The TC was accom-
panied by more clouds and strong winds, which
decreased the incoming shortwave radiation and the
latent heat fluxes, respectively, and disrupted the stag-
nant high-pressure conditions that maintained warm
water conditions in the ECS.
In many cases, the MHWs in summer are mainly
attributed to atmospheric forcing [11]. Therefore,
we conducted further investigation to identify the
remote forcings that significantly influenced the per-
sistent high-pressure system leading to the long-
lasting MHWs in the ECS.
3.3. Remote forcing contributing to duration of
MHW
Figure 4 displays pentad-mean upper and mid-level
anticyclones that represent the South Asian high and
western North Pacific subtropical high (WNPSH)
from June 16 to September 3. From the end of
June to late-August, there were an amplified baro-
tropic anticyclones over East Asia, together with east-
ward South Asian high and westeward WNPSH. The
strengthened anticyclone enhanced the downward
shortwave radiation, resulting in MHWs. After the
occurrence of MHWs, the two high-pressure sys-
tems (the South Asian high and WNPSH) retreated
in early September because of approaching Typhoon
Hinnamnor.
In 2022, La Niña redeveloped and it persisted.
Generally, a circumglobal teleconnection (CGT) with
a wavenumber-5 structure typically plays a signi-
ficant role in enhancing geopotential height in La
Niña years and causes persistent weather conditions
with a thermal forcing over the northwest India and
Pakistan [14, 46]. Beyond its impact on East Asia, La
Niña enhances the Indian monsoon precipitation and
Atlantic Ocean SST through atmospheric teleconnec-
tions and corresponding interbasin interaction [47,
48].
Here, we plot the regressed JA geopotential height
at 200 hPa onto the simultaneous ENSO index to
find its impact on the atmospheric circulation in the
Eurasian continent (figure S3). We found that the
tropical eastern Pacific SST can change the circulation
pattern over west Russia and the Kamchatka Penin-
sula. These two strong high-latitude anticyclones can
be explained by the La Niña signal; however, a weaker
high-pressure over East Asia compared to 2022 and
their expansion cannot be fully explained.
From now on, we will investigate what other
factors contributed to the persistent high-pressure
over East Asia. Traditionally, the North Atlantic
Environ. Res. Lett. 18 (2023) 064015 H Oh et al

Figure 3. Time series from June 1 to September 15 in the ECS [28◦ –34◦ N, 120◦ –128◦ E] from 1993–2022. (a) Anomalous
mixed-layer water temperature ‘dT’, horizontal advection (zonal advection ‘ZADV’; meridional advection ‘MADV’), and net
surface heat fluxes. The pink (positive) and green (negative) shading represented by the vertical mixing term. (b) Each term in the
net surface heat fluxes in the mixed-layer heat budget equation and (c) precipitation. ‘Qnet ’, ‘SSR’, ‘STR’, ‘SH’, and ‘LH’ stand for
the net surface heat fluxes, surface shortwave radiation, surface thermal radiation, sensible heat flux, and latent heat flux,
respectively. In (c), green dots represent the significant value above one standard deviation of its interannual variation.

Ocean warms one season after the La Niña peak be attributed to both La Niña and positive phase
event, indicating a passive response to La Niña [49]. of the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation. The North
The warmer SST in the North Atlantic in 2022 can Atlantic SST was the warmest in 2022 for the last four

6
Environ. Res. Lett. 18 (2023) 064015 H Oh et al

Figure 4. Pentad-mean upper and mid-level geopotential height from June 16 to September 3. Red and blue dashed lines indicate
mean 5880 gpm line for 2022 and climatology (1982–2020), respectively. Orange and light-blue solid lines show the 12 500 gpm
line for 2022 and climatology, respectively. Black contours are anomalous 200 hPa geopotential height. Shadings are SST. The
green typhoon symbol from August 30 to September 3 indicates Typhoon Hinnamnor.

decades (figure S4(b)), and it persisted from January
to September (figure S4(a)), suggesting that it could
consistently affect the global atmospheric circulation
as remote forcing. The warm North Atlantic SST can
excite wave trains that propagate eastward, acting as a
forcing that reinforces high-pressures over the North
Atlantic, west Russia, and East Asia, including the
ECS (figure 5(b)). The pattern correlation between
the 2022 anomaly and the regressed anomalous atmo-
spheric circulation pattern in the North Hemisphere
onto the North Atlantic SST was 0.85∗∗ .
Figure 5(a) shows anomalous land precipitation,
SST, 200 hPa geopotential height, and 500 hPa WAF
in JA, 2022. Stationary forcings such as atmospheric
diabatic and vorticity forcings generate the station-
ary Rossby wave pattern with alternating ridges and
troughs. The 2022 wave train would be related to the
other remote forcings rather than the direct effect of
La Niña itself. To unravel the impact of stationary for-
cing on the persistent anticyclone over the East Asia,
we conducted a linear baroclinic model (LBM) exper-
iment with prescribed thermal and vorticity forcings
[50]. We adopted the dry version with T42 horizontal
resolution and 20 sigma levels [51], and described the
idealized negative vorticity forcings over west Russia
(45◦ N, 300◦ E), the North Atlantic (65◦ N, 60◦ E),
and positive thermal forcing near Pakistan (20◦ N,
70◦ E) (figure 5(c)) based on the regressed vorticity
and thermal forcings onto the 200 hPa geopoten-
tial height over East Asia [28◦ –34◦ N, 100◦ –128◦ E].
These forcings are linked to eddy-vorticity forcings
over the North Atlantic, which can cause anomal-
ous high-pressure system over western Europe and
excite a wave train that propagates toward East Asia
[52, 53]. The upper-level WAF over East Asia in 2022
mainly came from the northwest and south, implying
that at least two forcings led to the stationary anti-
cyclone (figure 5(a)). First, since a forcing originating
from the west seemed to be related to the long-lasting
strong warm SST in the North Atlantic, the associated
extratropical vorticity forcing over the North Atlantic
was imposed. Furthermore, the WAF from the west
was accelerated as it passed over west Russia, with
a large variation of the upper-level circulation [54],
serving as a link to the forcing of the North Atlantic
Ocean [55].
In order to explain the northward WAF from
the subtropics, we added the thermal forcing over
Pakistan with the two vorticity forcings in the mid-
latitude. This is because precipitation over Pakistan
can generate the downstream waves of the CGT,
which, in turn, reinforces the South Asian high by
shifting it eastward. The Pakistan thermal forcing also
contributes to the strong, persistent anticyclone over
East Asia (figure S5(a)), even if the impact of ENSO is
removed (figure S5(b)). Therefore, the negative vorti-
city forcings over the North Atlantic and west Russia
and a thermal forcing over Pakistan were prescribed
in the atmospheric climatologic background in JA.
Each forcing induced the anticyclone over East Asia,
and the three forcings combined led to the CGT-like
global circulation pattern that favored the MHWs in

7
Environ. Res. Lett. 18 (2023) 064015 H Oh et al

Figure 5. (a) Anomalous land precipitation (brown to green shading), SST (blue to red shading), 200 hPa geopotential height
(Z200, black contour), and 500 hPa wave activity flux (blue vectors) during JA in 2022. (b) Same as (a) but for regressed variables
onto the North Atlantic SST [40◦ –50◦ N, 290◦ –340◦ E]. (c) The simulated Z200 anomaly in response to tropical-subtropical
forcings. The idealized negative vorticity sources [45◦ N, 300◦ E] and [65◦ N, 60◦ E] and thermal forcing [20◦ N, 70◦ E] are
shown in three different locations.

the ECS, causing the long-lasting extreme event in
2022.
4. Conclusion and discussion
This study aimed to determine the characteristics
and physical mechanisms of the 2022 long-lasting
MHWs in the ECS. The schematic summaries are
shown in figure 6. The onset of the MHWs in the
ECS was primarily driven by the reduced vertical
transfer of heat due to increased ocean stratification
caused by a large discharge of surface freshwater from
the Yangtze–Huaihe River floodings. These large river
discharges are closely linked to a stronger than nor-
mal EASM system. Simultaneously, a persistent anti-
cyclonic circulation increasing incoming solar radi-
ation was co-located over the ECS, leading to the
long-lasting MHWs. During the evolution stage, the
northwestward WNPSH and the eastward upper-
level anticyclone anomaly persisted for almost two
months, maintaing a vertical quasi-barotropic struc-
ture. Finally, the typhoon-induced ocean and atmo-
spheric dynamics retreated the MHWs through neg-
ative latent heat flux caused by strong surface winds
and less incoming solar radiation due to the increased
cloud cover. We further identified that the stationary
wave pattern with the strong high-pressure over the
ECS was led by the warm SST in the North Atlantic
and Pakistan precipitation rather than a ‘triple-dip’
La Niña. Namely, after the La Niña-related variations
from each forcing were removed based on a linear
regression method [56], each remote forcing still sig-
nificantly maintained a strong East Asian anticyc-
lone. Through the LBM experiment, we found that
the negative vorticity forcings in the mid-latitude
and positive thermal forcing over Pakistan can play a

8
Environ. Res. Lett. 18 (2023) 064015
Figure 6. Schematic summary of the record-breaking 2022 MHWs.
significant role in maintaining the strong anticyclone
over East Asia, inducing the record-breaking long-
lasting MHWs.
MHWs do not always occur when the river dis-
charge flow lowers salinity in the ECS. In 1995, there
was a large river discharge into the ECS, but no
MHWs occurred. In 2007, although it was one of
the lowest years, MHWs lasted for 6 d. Therefore,
low-salinity water discharged and the corresponding
oceanic response are not a sufficient condition for this
long-lasting MHW, but they strengthen this feature.
It can be inferred that the expected increase in EASM
precipitation and mean SST itself due to global warm-
ing would lead to a longer duration of MHWs in the
future [8].
This study unravels the physical mechanisms link-
ing floods and MHWs. To verify the ocean dynamics
and comprehend their essential roles on the MHWs
relative to atmospheric thermodynamic processes, a
model simulation capable of resolving ocean bound-
ary currents and shelf processes would be required.
Data availability statement
The hourly ERA5 data are available at https://cds.
climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/reanalysis-
era5-single-levels?tab=overview. The daily OISST
data were downloaded from https://psl.noaa.gov/
data/gridded/data.noaa.oisst.v2.highres.html and the
GLORYS12 data were obtained from https://marine.
copernicus.eu/.
All data that support the findings of this study are
included within the article (and any supplementary
files).
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National
Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant
9
H Oh et al
funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No.
2021R1C1C2005002) and Korea Institute of Marine
Science & Technology Promotion (KIMST) funded
by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (20210607,
Establishment of the Ocean Research Station in the
Jurisdiction Zone and Convergence Research).
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