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The seasonal variation of the intrusion of the Philippine Sea Water into the South China Sea was studied by analyzing the historical hydrographic station data in the northern South China Sea and the Philippine Sea. Water masses at 1150, 200, and 250 m were classified by discriminant analysis according to their temperature-salinity characteristics. At each depth, most water in the study region was classified into two groups representing the Philippine Sea Water and the South China Sea Water, respectively. The geographic distribution of water masses in the South China Sea shows that the Philippine Sea Water was present along the continental margin south of China between October and January. A westward current in the northern South China Sea in winter was inferred from the distribution of the intrusion water.

A 1/8° East Asian Marginal Seas model nested to a larger‐domain North Pacific Ocean model is implemented over a span of 24 years from 1982 to 2005 to investigate the spatial and temporal variations of the Kuroshio east of Taiwan. Between 22 and 25°N, the mean state and variability of the Kuroshio, such as the two paths observed in the trajectories of surface drifters southeast of Taiwan and the branching of the Kuroshio northeast of Taiwan, are well reproduced by the model. Southeast of Taiwan, the Kuroshio is mostly in the top 300 m in the inshore path but extends to 600 m in the offshore path. Northeast of Taiwan, the Kuroshio follows the shelf edge in the East China Sea but may branch along a path south of the Ryukyu Islands. The latter path often meanders southward, and a significant portion of the Kuroshio transport may be diverted to this path. The Kuroshio extends from the coast to 123–123.5°E between 22 and 25°N with currents reaching a depth of 1000 m at some latitudes. The Kuroshio transports averaged over five sections east of Taiwan are 28.4 ± 5.0 Sv and 32.7 ± 4.4 Sv with and without the contribution from the countercurrent, respectively.