The transport and accumulation of moisture played an essential role in the extremely heavy rainfall of July 2020 in Japan. To better understand this event in terms of moisture sources and transport routes, backward particle trajectory analysis was conducted. We found two major moisture sources: transport from the tropics and uptake from the subtropics. A narrow moisture channel was found along the edge of the western Pacific Subtropical High (WPSH), transporting the moisture to the Baiu front. However, most moisture from the tropics was lost due to precipitation, and their contributions were reduced to about 15%. In contrast, the subtropical regions contributed over 80% moisture via evaporation and lower tropospheric convection. Among those regions, the western Pacific contributed the most (>33%). This study highlights the role of WPSH in moisture transport and demonstrated the importance of moisture uptake during transport.

The most massive outbreak on record of the Ulva prolifera green tides in the southwestern Yellow Sea occurred in summer of 2021. The environmental factors were investigated based on observations and simulations. The results suggested that the significantly enhanced discharge of the Changjiang River since winter 2020–2021 was crucial for the outbreak of the Ulva prolifera green tides in the southwestern Yellow Sea, which could significantly have contributed to the nutrient enrichment off the Subei coast. Additionally, the southerly wind stress anomaly during winter 2020–2021 favored the upwind transport of Changjiang water. Numerical experiments showed that the remaining winter freshwater coming from the Changjiang River, which persisted in the Subei coast’s upper layer until spring 2021, exceeded the long-term average value by 20%. We demonstrated that these large amount of nutrient inputs, as an effective supplement, were the reason the green tides sharply emerged as an extensive outbreak in 2021. The easterly wind anomaly during spring 2021 contributed to the landing of Ulva prolifera off the Lunan coast.

In August 2022, the Tohoku region of Japan suffered three major heavy rainfall events, while one was related to an anticyclone, and the others were induced by a “Baiu‐like” stationary front. By using the Lagrangian backward trajectories, we found the moisture sources of the three events varied much due to the rapidly changing atmospheric conditions. In general, moisture from the Sea of Japan contributed the most in all events, while the western Pacific also played a certain role. Surprisingly, moisture from tropical storms and the East China Sea did not contribute much due to the along‐transport precipitation. But, based on forward‐traced trajectories, we confirmed that tropical storms did enhance moisture transport from subtropical regions via their southerly wind. Overall, this study highlights the role of the moisture gains nearby and the outer flows of tropical storms during heavy rainfalls in a northern region.

The radial sand ridges consist of more than 70 sand ridges that are spread out radially on the continental shelf of the South Yellow Sea. As a unique geomorphological feature in the world, its evolution process and characteristics are crucial to marine resource management and ecological protection. Based on the multi-source remote sensing image data from 1979 to 2019, three types of geomorphic feature lines, artificial coastlines, waterlines, and sand ridge lines were extracted. Using the GIS sequence analysis method (Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS), spatial overlay analysis, standard deviational ellipse method), the evolution characteristics of the shoreline, exposed tidal flats, and underwater sand ridges from land to sea were interpreted. The results demonstrate that: (1) The coastline has been advancing towards the sea with a maximum advance rate of 348.76 m/a from Wanggang estuary to Xiaoyangkou Port. (2) The exposed tidal flats have decreased by 1484 km² including the reclaimed area of 1414 km² and showed a trend of erosion in the north around Xiyang channel and deposition in the southeast around the Gaoni and Jiangjiasha areas. (3) The overall sand ridge lines showed a trend of gradually moving southeast (135°), and the moving distance is nearly 4 km in the past 40 years. In particular, the sand ridge of Tiaozini has moved 11 km southward, while distances of 8 km for Liangyuesha and 5 km for Lengjiasha were also observed. For the first time, this study quantified the overall migration trend of the RSRs. The imbalance of the regional tidal wave system may be one of the main factors leading to the overall southeastward shift of the radiation sandbanks.