Abstract
The article describes full-scale experimental studies performed in the TransdriftIV expedition from fast ice in the near-delta of the Lena river in the Laptev Sea during the period immediately preceding the flood (late May) and during the peak of the flood (early and mid-June). Processing of data has revealed the presence of supercooled water layers 5 to 150 cm thick in the zone of river-sea water contact (in the upper part of the seasonal pycnocline). The supercooling value was observed to be -0.8° C. Together with the thickness of supercooled fluid it depended upon both the time (before or during the flood) and the site of measurements (in the zone of main branches or beyond). At one of the stations a conglomerate of frazil ice was found attached to the cable of a bottom temperature meter at the depth of the pycnocline. Using the known conditions, the probability for supercooling and further frazil ice formation at all stations was determined. The results of observations have allowed the local Richardson numbers to be calculated for the river-sea water contact zone - the layer of supercooled fluid. Based on the theory of entrainment at the flat turbulent jet margin and a semi-empirical turbulence theory, it was possible to correctly relate the mean current velocity U in the upper freshened layer to the dynamic velocity U* (root-mean-square velocity of turbulent variations) and present the entrainment at the river-sea water boundary as a kind of entrainment at the flat turbulent jet margin. Using ratios from laboratory studies of frazil ice formation, the actual rates of frazil ice formation in the river/sea water contact zone were estimated. They were calculated for the different mean motion velocities in the freshened layer during the different periods of the flood development in the near-mouth region of the Lena River. Based on the known concentrations of suspended sediments in the layer freshened by river water, the fluxes of suspended matter to the bottom ice surface, governed by the process of frazil ice formation, were estimated.
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Golovin, P., Dmitrenko, I., Kassens, H., Hölemann, J.A. (1999). Frazil Ice Formation during the Spring Flood and its Role in Transport of Sediments to the Ice Cover. In: Kassens, H., et al. Land-Ocean Systems in the Siberian Arctic. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60134-7_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60134-7_13
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