Abstract
The influence of river discharge on ice-hydrological conditions was investigated during expeditions in the Laptev Sea in 1994, 1995 and 1996 during different seasons of the year within the framework of the Russian-German project “Laptev Sea System73”. A combined analysis of both ice satellite and CTD observations has shown that the formation and distribution of the fast ice edge is dependent on vertical heat exchange processes with the warm subsurface water layer underlying river water over a depth range of 10 to 25 m. It is formed during the summertime in areas affected by river discharge, which spreads as a result of warm surface water converging at the discharge fronts. Calculations show that advection of heat and double-diffusive convection are the most efficient modes of heat transport to the growing ice at the periphery of the freshened zone. Their values are sufficient to reduce the ice thickness at the periphery of the discharge zone by more than half. This leads to a fast ice edge much further south than the northern limit of the freshened zone. As a result, a considerable amount of riverine dissolved and suspended matter is incorporated into drifting ice and hence into transarctic ice transport.
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Dmitrenko, I., Golovin, P., Gribanov, V., Kassens, H. (1999). Oceanographic Causes for Transarctic Ice Transport of River Discharge. 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_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60134-7_9
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