Rapid Surface Warming of the Pacific Asian Marginal Seas Since the Late 1990s

The East Asian marginal seas gain heat from the warm pool via intrusion of the Kuroshio Current and play an important role in regulating regional climate. Here, we show that the sea surface temperature rise of the East Asian marginal seas, especially in areas where the Kuroshio intrudes, has far exceeded the rate of global ocean warming. We attribute this to warming of the Pacific Warm Pool since the 1990s. Intensified trade winds warmed the Pacific Warm Pool and caused the surface Kuroshio and the regions where it intrudes into marginal seas to warm rapidly in the late 1990s.