Anomalies of the Black Sea surface temperature and modeling of intense cold anomaly formation in September 2014

Seasonal average distribution of mesoscale anomalies of the Black Sea surface temperature (SST) and features of their localization for various seasons are considered. The area of cold SST anomalies is detected in open western and central parts of the sea. It is shown that an autumn season makes a major contribution to the formation of long-lived mesoscale cold anomalies in the central parts of the sea. The key features are reproduced and the main physical mechanism of rapid development of a cold anomaly is determined in the numerical experiment using the WRF-ARW model with the attached 3dPWP unit. It is shown that fast cooling occurs mainly due to the entrainment of cold waters from a thermocline, which results in the abrupt deepening of the upper quasi-homogeneous layer.