Hydrophysical features of deep water troughs in the western Kara Sea

Abstract

In the 59th cruise of the RV Akademik Mstislav Keldysh (September–October, 2011) a large amount of hydrophysical data was obtained with the help of various measuring systems. The data allowed us to study the dynamics and hydrological structure of deep-sea troughs of the western part of the Kara Sea at a high spatial resolution. In particular, the analysis of this material showed that a cyclonic jet exists in the central spur of the St. Anna Trough at depths of 150–300 m and penetrates down to the bottom. The jet is able to play a role of a dynamic barrier that prevents the penetration of water from the southwestern part of the Kara Sea to higher latitudes. In the eastern spur of the St. Anna Trough, the jet weakens, becomes less barotropic, and can no longer inhibit the northward spreading of the shelf waters of the Kara Sea. The weakest and least coherent currents were recorded in the Novaya Zemlya trough, in the southern part of which we traced waters of a Barents Sea origin.