Electronic atlas of the Russian Arctic coastal zone

A set of digital maps including geology, Quaternary sediments, landscapes, engineering-geological, vegetation, geocryological and the series of regional sources have been selected to characterize the Russian Arctic coast. Based on this data, new maps of engineering geocryological zoning and zoning of the coast with respect to the intensity of exogenous geological processes and risk of technogenic impacts have been generated at the scales of 1:4,000,000–1:8,000,000. These maps are a tool to assess the impact of industry on the Arctic coast of the country.     

Modified mild slope equation and open boundary conditions

A numerical model to compute wave field is developed. It is based on the Berkhoff diffraction-refraction equation, in which an energy dissipation term is added, to take into account the breaking and the bottom friction phenomena. The energy dissipation function, by breaking and by bottom friction, is introduced in the Berkhoff equation to obtain a new equation of propagation.The resolution is done with the hybrid finite element method, where lagrangians elements are used.     

Method and results of assimilation of climatic data on temperature,salinity, and sea level into a numerical model of the Black Sea

A method for combined assimilation of climatic hydrologic fields of temperature, salinity, and the climatic dynamic level of the Black Sea into a model of sea dynamics is proposed. The monthly mean fields of the dynamic sea level were obtained from the results of assimilation of satellite altimetry data into the model. The statistical characteristics of errors in the forecasts of the level, salinity, and temperature were assumed to be proportional to the statistical characteristics of the differences between monthly mean climatic fields of temperature, salinity, and sea level calculated by means of assimilating altimetry observations of the sea level and analogous climatic hydrologic fields. The climatic fields of currents are reconstructed and analyzed. The assimilation of the climatic altimetry level allows the reproduction (in current fields) of quasi-stationary synoptic anticyclonic eddies located along the periphery of the Black Sea Rim Current.     

Preferential concentration of marine particles in isotropic turbulence

The effect of small-scale turbulence on marine and aquatic particle transport has traditionally been to act as a means for creating homogeneous distributions. However, previous numerical simulations of heavy particle transport in turbulent flows have shown that particles are preferentially concentrated by turbulence and that effects of preferential concentration are most pronounced for particle parameters comparable to the Kolmogorov scales. Therefore, the focus of the present work is examination of the preferential concentration of marine particles. Application of Kolmogorov scaling indicates that effects of preferential concentration may be important for marine particles with diameters of order 1 mm in the upper mixed layer. Numerical simulations of unstratified isotropic turbulence are then used to support the notion that preferential concentration of particles possessing material characteristics representative of those encountered in marine environments can occur. In the simulations, particles of order 1 mm diameter are idealized as rigid spheres with a density ratio of 1.005. Simulation results demonstrate preferential concentration with peak particle number densities ranging from 10 to 60 times the global mean value. Implications of preferential concentration are also discussed, together with the limitations of the approach employed in the present study.     

Simulation of the Atlantic Ocean seasonal variability, using a quasi-isopycnic model

The paper discusses the data derived from a numerical experiment on the ocean’s response (between the equator and 64°N) to the seasonal variability of the atmospheric forcing (wind and heat flux through the ocean surface). A multilayer (7 layers) non-linear model is used incorporating the upper mixed layer interacting with the internal layers in the regimes of entraining and subduction. The restructuring of the layer composition, the currents and temperature variability, as well as the alternation of the entrainment and subduction regimes are analysed. Translated by Vladimir A. Puchkin.     

Effects of benthic biology on bottom boundary layer processes, Dry Tortugas Bank, Florida Keys

 An instrumented tetrapod was deployed for three weeks on the Dry Tortugas Bank at a depth of 26 m in February 1995. Bottom roughness was dominated by shrimp burrows and worm mounds with rms roughness amplitudes ranging from 0.47 to 1.75 cm. Logarithmic velocity profiles show apparent total roughness heights ranging from 0.30 to 1.45 cm, values consistent with observed biological roughness. The bed sediments were weakly bound by an algal crust at the sediment–water interface. When this bound layer was scraped away by a mooring that was accidentally dragged, sharp-crested wave-induced ripples appeared within the resulting swath. We conclude that physically induced roughness is biologically suppressed, but if dominant, would be significantly higher than the prevailing biological roughness.