Efficiency of dense shelf water cascading over the continental slope of Severnaya Zemlya in the Laptev Sea and its possible contribution to the ventilation of the intermediate water in the Nansen Basin

Abstract

Comprehensive field observations of hydrological processes in the region of the continental slope of Severnaya Zemlya in the Laptev Sea allowed us to reveal descending dense (cold) shelf water over the slope (cascading) and to determine the spatiotemporal variability of the cascading [2]. The observations represented a series of polygon surveys in the autumn-winter-spring period. The estimates of the characteristics of the slope convection of the shelf water (cascading) were based on the results of laboratory and theoretical studies of the descending of the dense water over a sloping bottom in a rotating fluid with sources of different geometry. It was shown that the cascading of dense shelf water over the continental slope mainly corresponds to a smooth (geostrophic) regime. An analysis of some thermohaline and density sections indicates, however, the possibility of the development of a wave-eddy regime of cascading and/or generation of fast gravity waves in the upper part of the continental slope. The most representative estimation of the contribution of the cascading of dense shelf water on the northern continental slope of Severnaya Zemlya to the ventilation of the intermediate waters in the Nansen Basin for five winter months is ≈0.0614 Sv.