Sea fog is frequently observed over the Yellow Sea, with an average of 50 fog days on the Chinese coast during April–July. The Yellow Sea fog season is characterized by an abrupt onset in April in the southern coast of Shandong Peninsula and an abrupt, basin-wide termination in August. This study investigates the mechanisms for such steplike evolution that is inexplicable from the gradual change in solar radiation. From March to April over the northwestern Yellow Sea, a temperature inversion forms in a layer 100–350 m above the sea surface, and the prevailing surface winds switch from northwesterly to southerly, both changes that are favorable for advection fog. The land–sea contrast is the key to these changes. In April, the land warms up much faster than the ocean. The prevailing west-southwesterlies at 925 hPa advect warm continental air to form an inversion over the western Yellow Sea. The land–sea differential warming also leads to the formation of a shallow anticyclone over the cool Yellow and northern East China Seas in April. The southerlies on the west flank of this anticyclone advect warm and humid air from the south, causing the abrupt fog onset on the Chinese coast. The lack of such warm/moist advection on the east flank of the anticyclone leads to a gradual increase in fog occurrence on the Korean coast. The retreat of Yellow Sea fog is associated with a shift in the prevailing winds from southerly to easterly from July to August. The August wind shift over the Yellow Sea is part of a large-scale change in the East Asian–western Pacific monsoons, characterized by enhanced convection over the subtropical northwest Pacific and the resultant teleconnection into the midlatitudes, the latter known as the western Pacific–Japan pattern. Back trajectories for foggy and fog-free air masses support the results from the climatological analysis.

Advection fog occurs usually when warm and moist air flows over cold sea surface. It is occasionally reported that the fog air temperature falls below sea surface temperature (called here the sea fog with sea surface heating [ssH]) due to longwave radiation cooling at fog top. Using 8‐year buoy observations, this study reveals that about 33% of the time, the advection fog is with ssH in the western Yellow Sea. By synthesizing long‐term observations from meteorological stations, atmospheric soundings, and offshore buoys, this study further investigates the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) structure and atmospheric circulation associated with the ssH sea fog. Composite analysis shows that a local anomalous high pressure favors widespread formation of the ssH sea fog. The subsidence in the high pressure intensifies the thermal and moist stratification between the MABL and free atmosphere through adiabatic warming. The dry air above helps cool the fog layer by enhancing the longwave radiative cooling at the fog top and the vertical mixing beneath, causing air temperature to drop below sea surface temperature. The ratio of sea fog with ssH to total sea fog decreases from spring to summer as the descending motion and MABL stratification both weaken. This study highlights the importance of longwave radiative cooling at the advection fog top and suggests a way to improve sea fog forecast in the Yellow Sea.

New observations from buoys and soundings reveal the discrepancies in air-sea interface and in vertical structures between spring (April to May) and summer (July) fogs in the Yellow Sea. Spring fogs are shallow with a robust temperature inversion, dry layer and cold phase (surface air temperature or SAT is lower than sea surface temperature or SST); summer fogs are deep with weaker stability, indistinct fog top and warm phase (SAT [ SST). Along with numerical simulations, conceptual models for the mechanisms of temperature inversion are suggested. The land-sea contrast is responsible for the robust temperature inversion in spring, and the deep southerlies derived from the east Asian summer monsoon and the adiabatic sinking from the western Pacific subtropical high contributes to the weaker inversion in summer. The dry layer above the sea fog top intensifies the longwave radiative cooling effect to lead to the cold phase in spring fogs. The radiative cooling is weaker in summer fogs resulting in SAT [ SST.

The Chinese east coastal areas and marginal seas are foggy regions. The development of effective forecasting methods rests upon a comprehensive knowledge of the fog phenomena. This study provides new observations associated with the sea fogs over the northwestern Yellow Sea by means of L-band radar soundings with a high vertical resolution of 30 m. The monthly temperature lapse rate, the Richardson Numbers, and the humidity show obvious seasonal variations in the lower level of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) that are related to the onset, peak and end of the Yellow Sea fog season. The typical pattern of stratification for the sea fog season in the northwestern Yellow Sea is that a stable layer of about 400 m thick caps a 150 m conditionally unstable layer. Besides, the differences between fogs and stratus clouds in terms of humidity, turbulence and temperature are analyzed, which is of significance for sea fog forecast and detection by satellites. The thickness of the sea fogs varies in different stages of the fog season, and is associated with the temperature inversion. The numerical simulation proves that the seasonal variations obtained by the radar well represent the situations over the Yellow Sea.