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.     

Jellyfish patch formation investigated by aerial photography and drifter experiment

Jellyfish patch formation is investigated by conducting a drifter experiment combined with aerial photography of a sustained patch of the moon jellyfish in Hokezu Bay, Japan. Jellyfish patches are aggregations of individuals that are caused by a combination of swimming (active influence) and advection by currents (passive influence). The drifter experiment involved the injection of 49 drifters around a distinct surface patch of jellyfish within an area of approximately 300 m × 300 m. The drifters’ motion, caused only by the passive influence, was recorded in a series of 38 aerial photographs taken over approximately 1 h. The ambient uniform current field larger than the patch scale was estimated from the movement of the centroid position of drifters, while the distribution of horizontal divergence and relative vorticity around the patch was estimated from the time-derivative in areas of triangles formed by the drifters. The centroid positions of both drifters and patches moved stably toward the bay head at different speeds. The difference vector between the patch and drifter centroids was directed to the sun, and was opposite to the ambient current. The distributions of vorticity and divergence around patches exhibited inhomogeneity within the patch scale, and the drifters in this nonuniform current field aggregated near the convergence area within 1 h. The results suggest that horizontal patch formation is predominantly influenced by passive factors at the surface of Hokezu Bay. Furthermore, the upward swimming against downwelling may make sustained patch in surface layer.     

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.     

Evidence for sinistral strike-slip deformation in The Solomon Island arc

During the SOPACMAPS 2 crusie carried out by IFREMER (Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer) and ORSTOM (Institut Français de Recherche Scientifique pour le dévelopement en Coopération) on theR/V L'Atalante, in the Central Solomon Arc area, multibeam bathymetric and imagery data and single-channel seismic reflection profiles were collected from an area of about 3500 km², to evaluate regional tectonics. Structural data geophysical profiles interpretation provide evidence for left-lateral transtensional tectonics on the southern edge of the Central Solomon Trough. This transtensional deformation is represented by faulting, block tilting, and rhombohedral deformation. The regional geology and the analysis of the sedimentary cover allow us to demonstrate that this tectonic occurred in two different phases during Oligocene to Miocene and Pliocene to Pleistocene times.     

Approximation of the estimate error covariance function: Verification of the accuracy and generalization for the case of cross-covariance functions

Generalization of the approximation for the autocovariance function of estimate error, used frequently in four-dimensional analysis of the ocean's hydrophysical fields, is suggested for cross-covariance functions. It is shown that the principal properties of the covariance function of error estimate are not then violated. Approximation accuracy is studied through numerical experimentation using the two-dimensional equation for passive admixture transport as an example.Translated by V. Puchkin.     

Evidence for the evolution of an oxygen minimum layer at the beginning of S-1 sapropel deposition in the eastern Mediterranean

The sediments of the eastern Mediterranean basin contain a series of organic-rich sapropels intercalated with organic-poor nannofossil oozes. Until recently the timing of the onset of sapropel formation was not known accurately because of the low resolution achievable by conventional radiocarbon dating. Compilation of all available ¹⁴C-AMS dates show that the base of S-1 (the most recent sapropel) was initiated 8800 years B.P. (¹⁴C age corrected by 400 years for reservoir effect) under a 500 m water column and moved progressively into deeper water reaching depths of 3500 m at 8200 years B.P. The linear correlation between the age of S-1 onset and water depth

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suggests that formation of sapropels moved into deeper water at a rate of 1000 m/200 year. A model is suggested in which export production which sank below the well-mixed surface layers (500 m) was respired consuming dissolved oxygen in the Levantine deep water until a threshold value was reached when sapropels began to be preserved in the sediment. This resulted in a progressively deepening oxygen minimum zone with time until eventually the entire deep water in the basin was oxygen depleted. Assuming that the threshold value for sapropel formation was complete anoxia, it was calculated that primary productivity in the basin during the deposition of S-1 was a factor of 5 greater than that found at present.     

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.     

Numerical modelling of tsunami propagation in the open Black Sea

This paper focuses on the numerical modelling of tsunami propagation in the open Black Sea. Two types of numerical models are discussed: a model for the radial propagation of long waves and an evolutionary finite-difference prognostic model. Experimentally derived numerical data on the model source of tsunamis are reported. Translated by Vladimir A. Puchkin.