Author(s): I. Dmitrenko; P. Golovin; Y. Gribanov; H. Kassens; J. Holeman
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Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: Influence of the summer river runoff on the formation of land fast ice in the Kara and Laptev Seas in the wintertime is considered. Based on CTD-measurements in 1993 - 1996, a new mechanism forming the warm intermediate layer in the seasonal pycnocline is suggested. This is the isopycnic convergence of warm surface water beneath a water lens freshened by the river runoff. The heat exchange between the sea surface and the intermediate warm layer formed in the sununer, is shown to determine the distribution of land fast ice during the autumn-winter period and the quasistationary position of its edge. It is located at the periphery of the freshened zone, since the heat content of the intermediate layer here is maximum. An analysis of theoretically possible heat exchange mechanisms between the sub-ice and a warm intermediate layer has indicated the priority role of the double diffusion process at the upper boundary of the warm intermediate layer.
Year: 1998