Internal waves measurements with distributed temperature sensors near Arctic Ocean continental shelf margin

Abstract

Five experiments of internal waves measurements were carried out in the two Arctic regions near continental shelf margin during 1983-1989. Experiments were performed with one distributed temperature sensor or an array of three horizontally separated ones, CTD instrument and current meters. The common duration of the experiments was 50 days. As well as in other internal wave observations in high-latitude ice-covered regions the frequency spectral level of the presented measurements are lower than in the Garrett-Munk model, but they are the highest in the Arctic. The analysis of horizontal coherency revealed, that the wave number bandwidth is about a factor 10 wider that found at lower latitude. These two facts may be related to unique generation and dissipation mechanisms present in the Arctic near continental shelf margins.