Oceanic vertical mixing of the lower halocline water(LHW)in the Chukchi Borderland and Mendeleyev Ridge was studied based on in situ hydrographic and turbulent observations.The depth-averaged turbulent dissipation rate of LHW demonstrates a clear topographic dependence,with a mean value of 1.2×10^(-9) W/kg in the southwest of Canada Basin,1.5×10^(-9) W/kg in the Mendeleyev Abyssal Plain,2.4×10^(-9) W/kg on the Mendeleyev Ridge,and2.7×10^(-9) W/kg on the Chukchi Cap.Correspondingly,the mean depth-averaged vertical heat flux of the LHW is0.21 W/m^(2) in the southwest Canada Basin,0.30 W/m^(2) in the Mendeleyev Abyssal Plain,0.39 W/m^(2) on the Mendeleyev Ridge,and 0.46 W/m^(2) on the Chukchi Cap.However,in the presence of Pacific Winter Water,the upward heat released from Atlantic Water through the lower halocline can hardly contribute to the surface ocean.Further,the underlying mechanisms of diapycnal mixing in LHW—double diffusion and shear instability—was investigated.The mixing in LHW where double diffusion were observed is always relatively weaker,with corresponding dissipation rate ranging from 1.01×10^(-9) W/kg to 1.57×10^(-9) W/kg.The results also show a strong correlation between the depth-average dissipation rate and strain variance in the LHW,which indicates a close physical linkage between the turbulent mixing and internal wave activities.In addition,both surface wind forcing and semidiurnal tides significantly contribute to the turbulent mixing in the LHW.
Long LinHailun HeYong CaoTao LiYilin LiuMingfeng Wang
Experiments are performed on the internal waves(IWs) generated by a towed model with rotating propeller in a density-stratified fluid with linear halocline; the Reynolds number ranges from 7 000 to 84 000, and the Froude number ranges from 0.7 to 8.1. The wave speed, amplitude and patterns are investigated on the basis of the multi-channel conductivity probe array technology and the cross correlation analysis method. It is shown that the propeller advances the transition from the body-generated IWs to the wake-generated IWs. Before the transition, the IWs are stationary to the translational model. An extra V-shaped wave with a narrow opening angle is generated by the propeller and the wave amplitude becomes larger with the increase of the thrust momentum,indicating that the propeller produces body and wake effects at the same time before the transition. After the transition, the Froude number associated with the wave speed drops down and fluctuates within 0.4—1.5, showing that the IWs are nonstationary to the model. The interaction of the drag momentum and the thrust momentum changes the characteristics of the wave amplitudes and patterns. The wave amplitude no longer simply grows with the Froude number but depends on the contrast of the drag momentum and the thrust momentum. Experimental results show that the most obvious contrast of the wave pattern contour maps appears when the drag momentum and the thrust momentum have the largest difference if other conditions are the same. When the ratio of the drag momentum to the thrust momentum is within 1—10, the wake can be considered as zero-momentum, meaning that the momentum difference is not enough to generate large scale structures in the wake.
The World Ocean Database(WOD) is used to evaluate the halocline depth simulated by an ice-ocean coupled model in the Canada Basin during 1990–2008. Statistical results show that the simulated halocline is reliable.Comparing of the September sea ice extent between simulation and SSM/I dataset, a consistent interannual variability is found between them. Moreover, both the simulated and observed September sea ice extent show staircase declines in 2000–2008 compared to 1990–1999. That supports that the abrupt variations of the ocean surface stress curl anomaly in 2000–2008 are caused by rapid sea ice melting and also in favor of the realistic existence of the simulated variations. Responses to these changes can be found in the upper ocean circulation and the intermediate current variations in these two phases as well. The analysis shows that seasonal variations of the halocline are regulated by the seasonal variations of the Ekman pumping. On interannual time scale, the variations of the halocline have an inverse relationship with the ocean surface stress curl anomaly after 2000,while this relationship no longer applies in the 1990 s. It is pointed out that the regime shift in the Canada Basin can be derived to illustrate this phenomenon. Specifically, the halocline variations are dominated by advection in the 1990 s and Ekman pumping in the 2000 s respectively. Furthermore, the regime shift is caused by changing Transpolar Drift pathway and Ekman pumping area due to spatial deformation of the center Beaufort high(BH)relative to climatology.
In spring preceding the record minimum summer ice cover detailed microstructure measurements were made from drifting pack ice in the Arctic Ocean, 110 km from the North Pole. Profiles of hydrography, shear, and temperature microstructure collected in the upper water column covering the core of the Atlantic Water are analyzed to determine the diapycnal eddy diffusivity, the eddy diffusivity for heat, and the turbulent flux of heat. Turbulence in the bulk of the cold halocline layer was not strong enough to generate significant buoyancy flux and mixing. Resulting turbulent heat flux across the upper cold halocline was not significantly different than zero. The results show that the low levels of eddy diffusivity in the upper cold halocline lead to small vertical turbulent transport of heat, thereby allowing the maintenance of the cold halocline in the central Arctic.
A year-round halocline is a particular hydrographic structure in the upperArctic Ocean. On the basis of an analysis of the hydrographic data collected in the Arctic Ocean, itis found that a double-halocline structure exists in the upper layer of the southern Canada Basin,which is absolutely different from the Cold Halocline Layer (CHL) in the Eurasian Basin. ThePacific-origin water is the primary factor in the formation of the double-halocline structure. Theupper halocline lies between the summer modification and the winter modification of thePacific-origin water while the lower halocline results from the Pacific-origin water overlying uponthe Atlantic-origin water. Both haloclines are all the year-round although seasonal and interannualvariations have been detected in the historical data.
SHI Jiuxin ZHAO Jinping LI Shujiang CAO Yong QU Ping
Seawater samples were collected in the water column from the Canada Basin aboard RV Xuelong in August 1999. Concentrations of δ; D, δ;18 O, nutrients (NO3 -, PO4 3-, SiO3 2-) and dissolved oxygen were measured, along with hydrographic parameters (salinity and temperature). Our results showed that the upper layer of the water column was characterized by the occurrence of the upper halocline water (UHW) and the lower halocline water (LHW). The UHW was associated with a salinity of 33.1 (~150m depth) and maximums of nutrients, NO and PO*, whereas minimums of NO and PO* (PO* = PO4 3?+ O2/175?1.95 μmol/dm3) occurred at the depth of LHW (~300m depth). Two tracer systems, S-δ;18O-PO* and S-δ D-SiO3 3-, were used to estimate the fractions of the Atlantic water, Pacific water, river runoff and sea ice meltwater in water samples. Combined with the nutrient ratio NO/PO, it was suggested that the UHW was derived from the in-flow of the Pacific water through the Bering Strait. These waters were modified to obtain the high salinity and nutrients in the Chukchi shelf or/and the east Siberian shelf. The LHW was maintained by inflow of the Atlantic water through Barents Sea and subsequent mixing with freshwater in the shelf region to produce the signals of NO and PO* minimums. In study basin, the river runoff signals were confined to water depths less than 300 m and the fractions of river runoff decreased with the increasing depth. Water column inventories of river runoff and sea ice meltwater were calculated between the surface and 300m. The river runoff inventories in the Canada Basin were higher than those in other sea areas, suggesting that the Canada basin is a major storage region for Arctic river water. The sea ice meltwater signals suggested that the Canada Basin is a region of net sea ice formation and the inventories of net sea ice in the upper water column increasing from the south to the north.