Oceanographic regime

Abstract

This chapter expands upon the particular oceanographic regime of the White Sea. Previous observations have shown a salient feature of the White Sea thermodynamics is a permanent influence of strong ebb and tide currents originating in the Barents Sea. The sea level variations arising from this phenomenon may attain several meters, thereby significantly reducing the geostrophic balance there. In addition to these strong water movements, there is a wide spectrum of other motions such as Poincare and Kelvin waves, as well as shelf zone movements. Despite a long history of studies of the White Sea thermodynamics, there remain many uncertainties (e.g., the water exchange between the White and Barents Seas have not yet been investigated sufficiently, nor have the hydrodynamics in the largest bays of the White Sea). This chapter focuses on the White Sea hydrophysics and hydrodynamics as revealed primarily by multi-year field observations. These observations are of great value per se as well as for the interpretation of remote sensing (Chapter 6) and numerical modeling of the hydrodynamics and marine ecosystem (Chapter 10).