Fig. 6

Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) results over the ECS shelf (depth < 300 m) for the meridional wind stress (a, b) and sea level (c, d) during summer (June–August running mean) from 1983 to 2019. The variance explained by the first (second) leading EOF mode of meridional wind stress (sea level) was 59.8 (12.3) %. The first column (a, c) denotes the eigenvector (loading vector), and the second column shows the eigenvalue (principal component). The black dashed lines indicate the number of particles passing through the Korea Strait. Figures were generated by Y-YKim using MATLAB R2024b (http://www.mathworks.com).