In this paper, intraannual and interannual variability of ice cover in the Yellow Sea is investigated. For this purpose, actual materials of the ice cover observations in the Yellow Sea and data on ice of the nearest adjacent water basin - Peter-the-Great bay have been used.
Scientific literature on ice cover in the Yellow Sea provides only fragmentary data. It is known that ice is formed annually in northern part of the sea in autumn, and it breaks in 2-3 months. Regular observations of ice in the Yellow Sea were not carried out. Such failure occurred because they considered that this water area was located in low latitudes (southern to the 40° North latitude) and it was exposed to essential defrost influence of solar radiation and to the waters of the East China Sea. The greater values of sea tide (up to 10 m) also do not make to process ice formation. At the same time, winter air mass from the Asian continent causes the cooling of considered water area and ice formation. The average monthly temperature of air in January in the northern Yellow Sea reduces down to -10°C. The sums of degree-days of frost in the northern Liaodong Gulf change from 200 up to 550 in years different by severity. The calculations of probable ice thickness according to Zubov's and other authors' classic expressions show, that ice cover thickness can accrue from 25 up to 50 cm in winters different by severity (Yakunin, Kardai and Lukjanova, 2005). Regular weekly satellite observations of the Yellow Sea ice cover started and were published in Internet since 1997. Generalization of these data has allowed receiving the basic regime characteristics of ice cover in the Yellow Sea which have been placed in previous our publication (Yakunin, Kardai and Lukjanova, 2005).
