Finestructure of Teh Open Part of the Baltic Sea.

Abstract

This chapter discusses the finestructure of the deep waters of the open part of the Baltic Sea under calm weather conditions on the one hand and within a synoptic eddy on the other. In the BOSEX area, the effect of the coasts and of the danish sounds can be considered unimportant. The vertical profiles of temperature, salinity, and density vary monotonously with depth in the deep layer (60–95 meter). The data was analyzed with the presumption that three processes can be responsible for the formation of vertical structure within the scales of finestructure and microstructure, such as small-scale turbulence; double-diffusive convection (both temperature and salinity increase with depth in the deep layer of the Baltic Sea); and kinematic effects of internal waves. Furthermore, the agreement between the mean amplitudes determined from the temperature, salinity, and density spectra indicates that all isolines are similarly deformed. This supports the assumption that the observed fluctuations of the physical variables at finestructure scales are a result of the influence of internal waves.