Circulation in the Southwestern Part of the Kara Sea in September 2007 A
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ISSN 00014370, Oceanology, 2010, Vol. 50, No. 5, pp. 643–656. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2010. Original Russian Text © A.G. Zatsepin, E.G. Morozov, V.T. Paka, A.N. Demidov, A.A. Kondrashov, A.O. Korzh, V.V. Kremenetskiy, S.G. Poyarkov, D.M. Soloviev, 2010, published in Okeanologiya, 2010, Vol. 50, No. 5, pp. 683–697. MARINE PHYSICS Circulation in the Southwestern Part of the Kara Sea in September 2007 A. G. Zatsepina, E. G. Morozova, V. T. Pakab, A. N. Demidova, A. A. Kondrashovb, A. O. Korzhb, V. V. Kremenetskiya, S. G. Poyarkova, and D. M. Solovievc a Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia Email: [email protected] b Atlantic Branch of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia c Marine Hydrophysical Institute, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Sevastopol, Ukraine Received September 16, 2009; in final form, January 2, 2010 Abstract—During cruise 54 of the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh to the southwestern Kara Sea (September 6 to October 7, 2007), a large amount of hydrophysical data with unique spatial resolution was obtained on the basis of measurements using different instruments. The analysis of the data gave us the possibility to study the dynamics and hydrological structure of the southwestern Kara Sea basin. The main elements of the gen eral circulation are the following: the Yamal Current, the Eastern Novaya Zemlya Current, and the St. Anna Trough Current. All these currents are topographically controlled; they flow over the bottom slopes along the isobaths. The Yamal Current begins at the Kara Gates Strait and turns to the east as part of the cyclonic cir culation. Then, it turns to the north and propagates along the Yamal coast over the 100m isobath. The East ern Novaya Zemlya Current (its core is located over the eastern slope of the Novaya Zemlya Trough) flows to the northeast. Near the northern edge of Novaya Zemlya, it encounters the St. Anna Trough Current, sepa rates from the coast, and flows practically to the east merging with the continuation of the Yamal Current. A strong frontal zone is formed in the region where the two currents merge above the threshold that separates the St. Anna Trough from the Novaya Zemlya Trough and divides the warm and saline Arctic waters from the cooler and fresher waters of the southwestern part of the Kara Sea. This threshold, whose depth does not exceed 100–150 m, is a barrier that prevents the spreading of the Barents Sea and Arctic waters to the south western part of the Kara Sea basin through the St. Anna Trough. DOI: 10.1134/S0001437010050024 INTRODUCTION the Barents Sea and the transformed Atlantic waters are transported into the Kara Sea through the Kara The information about the general circulation in Gates and the Yugorskii Shar straits, as well as through the Kara Sea is contradictory because several different the deep St. Anna and Voronin troughs. schemes of the mean currents exist. According to one of them, the circulation at the surface and in the deep The circulation is different according to the other layers is cyclonic [2, 18]. The main elements of this more recent schemes [12–17] based on the data of circulation include the following: (a) the Eastern shipborne ADCP measurements, moored current Novaya Zemlya Current, which is a continuation of measurements, and numerical and laboratory model the western Novaya Zemlya Current in the Barents Sea ing. The flow of warmer and more saline water from flowing around Novaya Zemlya from the north and the Barents Sea propagates as a rule to the northeast then turning to the southwest along the eastern slope along the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya up to its of Novaya Zemlya; (b) the Yamal Current partly northern end. The freshwater runoff of the Ob and formed by the water flow propagating from the Barents Yenisei rivers forms an anticyclonic gyre near the Sea through the Kara Gates and the Yugorskii Shar mouths of the rivers and north of them with intensifi straits flowing to the northeast along the western slope cation of the northeastern transport at its western of the Yamal Peninsula; and (c) the western Taimyr periphery; part of the waters of this gyre merges with Current, which is a continuation of the Yamal Current the northeasterly current along the coast of Novaya propagating along the coasts of Siberia up to the Vil Zemlya. kitskii Strait and then flowing into the Laptev Sea. Thus, we can state that even the direction of the Both the Yamal Current and the Western Taimyr Cur transport by the main currents in the Kara Sea during rent branch and transport the waters of the Kara Sea the warm season is not unambiguously determined. freshened by the runoff of the rivers to the Central The most contradictory question is related to the Arctic and the Laptev Sea. The deep saline waters of direction of the Eastern Novaya Zemlya Current. 643 644 ZATSEPIN et al. Where is it directed: to the southwest or to the north Satellite information in the visual and IR spectrum east? It is clear that the answer to this question is prin ranges was used for the operative planning of the cipally important in forming the concept about the research. water exchange in the southwestern part of the Kara The location of the oceanographic stations with the Sea and for a number of practical problems related, for CTD profiling and water sampling, as well as a scheme example, to the determination of the possible trans with the numbers of the sections occupied using the port of radioactive pollution [18]. towed profiling in the scanning regime, is presented in In this work, we present and analyze the new data [9] (Figs. 1a and 1b, respectively). A total of four on the currents and hydrological structure in the hydrographic sections (51 profiling stations) and southwestern part of the Kara Sea obtained during 25 sections with a towed CTD profiler in the scanning cruise 54 of the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in regime (some of which were accompanied by the use September of 2007. of a towed ADCP) were occupied. Below, we shall describe only the sections that are the most important for forming the concepts about the current system in THE STUDIED REGIONS AND THE the southwestern part of the Kara Sea. METHODS AND MEANS OF THE OBSERVATIONS RESULTS OF THE OBSERVATIONS In the autumn of 2007, oceanographic research was AND THE DATA PROCESSING carried out in several regions of the Kara Sea: (a) the The region west of the Yamal Peninsula: hydro region adjacent to the Yamal Peninsula from the west, graphic section no. 1. The distributions of the temper where the influence of possible freshwater runoff is ature and salinity over the section are shown in Figs. 1a minimal, the depths change from 18–20 m to 100– and 1b, respectively. It is worth noting that the distri 120 m, and the region is influenced by the Yamal Cur bution of the density along this section (as well as over rent directed to the northnortheast; (b) the region of other sections) is not shown because it is practically the Novaya Zemlya Trough with depths up to 380 m, identical to the salinity distribution. where the Eastern Novaya Zemlya Current propagates The hydrological structure is characterized by a rela over its western slope; (c) the region of the continental tively warm (4–6°C) and slightly freshened (26–29 psu) slope in the southern part of the St. Anna Trough, upper quasihomogeneous layer (UQL) whose thick where the current flowing from the southwestern part ness in the offshore part of the section is 10–20 m. A of the Kara Sea interacts with the flow from the north sharp thermohalocline with a thickness of 5–10 m is (frontal (barrier) zones exist in this region); (d) the located below this layer. A cold subsurface layer (CSL) wide region between the estuary of the Ob River in the is located under the thermocline (with a range of tem south and the slope of the St. Anna Trough in the peratures from –1.4 to –1.6°C), which is formed in north, where saline water freshened by the river runoff the winter due to the convective mixing. Warmer spreads; and (e) the estuary of the Ob River, which is a waters with higher salinity, which are likely of the Bar transition zone from the fresh waters to brackish ents Sea origin, are located even deeper at 60–100 m. waters with intense frontogenesis. Hydrophysical The salinity gradually increases with the depth reach investigations were carried out in these regions. ing a value of 34.4 psu at a depth of 100 m. The frontal The research was carried out using a wide set of zone of the Yamal Current is located in the region of equipment providing the following: (a) the continuous the bottom slope (with a depth change from 18–20 m recording of the hydrophysical parameters in the sur to 100–120 m), where the contour lines of all the char face layer from the moving ship (a CTD thermosalino acteristics deepen in the direction to the coast and reach graph, an SBE911 in a pumped seawater system); the sloping bottom. The UQL deepens to 30–40 m, dis (b) the vertical profiling of the hydrophysical and bio placing the CSL from the slope offshore, while the optical characteristics with the simultaneous water thermopycnohalocline widens and weakens. These sampling at stations (a CTD thermosalinograph, an facts, as well as the distribution of the turbidity SBE19 plus with a set of Niskin bottles and additional (Fig.