TY - JOUR

T1 - Interaction of dense shelf waters of the barents and kara seas with the eddy structures

AU - Platov, Gennady A.

AU - Golubeva, Elena N.

N1 - The work was carried out at support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grant No 17-05-00382, and using resources of the Center for Collective Use “Siberian Supercomputer Center” ICMMG SB RAS.

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Purpose. Considered are the processes of dense bottom water formation in winter in the region of the Novaya Zemlya northwestern coast, its further propagation (cascading) towards the St. Anna trough and then to the open ocean. The goal of the paper is to show that the process of such propagation is closely related to generation of the mesoscale eddies. Methods and Results. The data of available measurements indicate only some residual forms of such a movement, since they cover mainly a summer season. Numerical study was carried out using the system of the nested models SibCIOM and SibPOM. In course of the numerical experiments it became possible to show the system capability in describing the water bottom structure and to reproduce the process of bottom water propagation in details. Analysis of the above-mentioned process has revealed energy conversion of the available potential energy of a regular motion into the potential energy of eddy formations. The eddy structures’ ageostrophicity, in its turn, contributes to the accelerated advancement of dense shelf waters downard along the sloping bottom. Conclusions. One of the important features of cascading is that at the initial stage, it is accompanied by active generation of the mesoscale eddy structures. Both processes interact energetically and contribute to increase of heat and mass exchange between the shelf and the open ocean. Proper description of this exchange is a prerequisite for successful modeling of the intermediate and deep water thermodynamics in the Arctic Ocean.

AB - Purpose. Considered are the processes of dense bottom water formation in winter in the region of the Novaya Zemlya northwestern coast, its further propagation (cascading) towards the St. Anna trough and then to the open ocean. The goal of the paper is to show that the process of such propagation is closely related to generation of the mesoscale eddies. Methods and Results. The data of available measurements indicate only some residual forms of such a movement, since they cover mainly a summer season. Numerical study was carried out using the system of the nested models SibCIOM and SibPOM. In course of the numerical experiments it became possible to show the system capability in describing the water bottom structure and to reproduce the process of bottom water propagation in details. Analysis of the above-mentioned process has revealed energy conversion of the available potential energy of a regular motion into the potential energy of eddy formations. The eddy structures’ ageostrophicity, in its turn, contributes to the accelerated advancement of dense shelf waters downard along the sloping bottom. Conclusions. One of the important features of cascading is that at the initial stage, it is accompanied by active generation of the mesoscale eddy structures. Both processes interact energetically and contribute to increase of heat and mass exchange between the shelf and the open ocean. Proper description of this exchange is a prerequisite for successful modeling of the intermediate and deep water thermodynamics in the Arctic Ocean.

KW - Arctic Ocean

KW - Cascading

KW - Formation of water masses

KW - Kara Sea

KW - Mesoscale eddy

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096645296&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=42422474

U2 - 10.22449/1573-160X-2019-6-484-503

DO - 10.22449/1573-160X-2019-6-484-503

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85096645296

VL - 26

SP - 484

EP - 503

JO - Physical Oceanography

JF - Physical Oceanography

SN - 1573-160X

IS - 6

ER -