Drift data from 17 Argo profiling floats in the East Sea are used to understand the mean flow and its variability in the upper portion of the East Sea Proper Water (UESPW) (around 800 m). The flow penetrates into the Ulleung basin (UB) through two paths: an extension of the southward flowing of the North Korean Cold Water along the east coast of Korea and between Ulleung Island and Dok island. Flows at 800 m are observed in the range of from 0.2 to 4.29 cms-1 and the variability in the north of the UB is larger than that in the south of the UB. In the UB, cyclonic flows from 0.3 to 1.6 cms-1 are observed with the bottom topography. We found that the mean kinetic energy (MKE) and the mean eddy kinetic energy (EKE) are 1.3 and 2.1 cm2s-2 respectively

• Homan Lee(Marine Meteorology and Earthquake Research Laboratory Meteorological Research Institute) Corresponding Author
• Tae-Hee Kim(Marine Meteorology and Earthquake Research Laboratory Meteorological Research Institute)
• Ji-Ho Kim(Marine Meteorology and Earthquake Research Laboratory Meteorological Research Institute)
• Jang-Won Seo(Marine Meteorology and Earthquake Research Laboratory Meteorological Research Institute)
• Yong-Hoon Youn(Marine Meteorology and Earthquake Research Laboratory Meteorological Research Institute)