Abstract
In the present paper some investigations are made on the sea ice in the South Kurile Islands, mainly in the sea near Etorofu Island.
The sea along the coast begins to freeze from the end of January, and drift ice can be seen from the middle of Eebruary. The sea ices are transported by the Okhotsk Return Current (Cold current) and the north-west monsoon, and the ice blocks appears at Saghalin, Hokkaido, and the north-eastern part of kurile Islands, in sequence.
As the recurrence number of sea ice becomes large, the volumes of ice block decrease, and when the sea ice remains stagnant, the sea ice blocks are hardly melted away.
Some people say that the influence of sea ice upon the elements of climate is trivial, but, in facts, the temperature is effected remarkably by it.
Weather is influenced by the temperature upon the sea ices, and it seems to relate upon the stability of the weather. The sea ices have no direct relation with the sea fog and after the sea ices have melted away, it is known that regular sea fogs come.
The sea fog does not appear on the sea while there are sea ices.
The sea ices seem to affect directly the elements of long-range forecasting, but exactly there is no relation, because the air masses are influenced by cold sea area. There is a remarkable fact that drift ices can be seen early than usual, when it is colder than usual winter.
It is a interesting fact that, as people say, the continental climate prevails when the sea ice develops on the North Okhotsk Sea.
