Polar Frontal Zone of the Barents Sea Western Trough Based on the Direct Measurements in 2007

Abstract

The results of measurements carried out in summer, 2007 in the north-western part of the Barents Sea are discussed. The ship weather station and the vessel mounted Acoustic Doppler current profiler VMADCP150 are used to carry out measurements in the vessel motion. CTD/LADCP-sensing is performed at the drift stations. The minimum horizontal scale of a temperature front is 0.5 km, whereas the maximum horizontal gradient of water temperature is 4 °C/km. The width of the North Cape Current Northern branch is ~8 km that is three times larger than the Rossby radius of deformation. Position of the temperature front coincides with that of the jet stream core. The characteristics of small-scale vertical structure of water dynamics and density stratification in the polar frontal zone are discussed. The averaged annual variability of temperature and salinity vertical structure in the area of the Spitsbergen Bank and the Hopen Deep are represented. The intra-annual variability of water salinity in the Hopen Deep calculated based on the historical database of hydrological data, revealed the presence of variations with a period of four months. Based on satellite observations, position of the temperature front in the area of research is defined.

Keywords

• polar frontal zone
• Spitsnbergen Bank
• the Hopen Deep
• Western trough of the Barents Sea
• the North Cape Current Northern branch
• ADCP