Variability of Characteristics of the Coastal Current at the Southern Coast of Crimea in 2017–2019

A. S. Kuznetsov*, V. V. Zima, S. V. Shcherbachenko

Marine Hydrophysical Institute RAS, Sevastopol, Russia

* e-mail: kaskasev@mail.ru

Abstract

This paper aims at specifying peculiarities of the coastal water circulation according to the current monitoring data obtained at the stationary oceanographic platform of the Black Sea hydrophysical sub-satellite testing area of the MHI RAS near the Southern coast of Crimea in 2017–2019. The monitoring was performed using the technology of continuous measurements with a vertically distributed (from the surface to bottom layer) complex of Euler vector-averaging meters of the horizontal current component. The new results are matched to those of the coastal current monitoring obtained for the previous period from 2008 to 2016. For the entire observation period (2008–2019), the annual focused current of coastal waters kept the west-south-western direction, with its vertical structure remaining stable. In 2017–2019, a verifiable decrease was registered in the annual longshore current velocity, on average by 10 % throughout the depth up to 7.8 cm/s at a depth of 5 m and up to 6.4 cm/s at a depth of 20 m. Also, the relevant characteristics of bimodal distribution of direction repeatability within original (non-averaged) data remained unchanged. Further, for 12 years, the oscillation intensity of the coastal current with periods of 10–13 days or less remained reliably unchanged. While analyzing the vertical structure of averaged for 2017–2019 kinetic energy spectra in the inertial-gravitational fluctuation range, two separate regions are reliably detected of regular oscillations with daily (24 h) and local inertia (about 17 h) periods. The obtained new research results can be used while performing validation calculations of local models of the coastal water circulation in the water area of the Southern coast of Crimea. This includes also planning measures to provide crisis monitoring of the coastal ecotone of the sea due to pollution of the coastal and shelf waters.

Keywords

Black Sea hydrophysical sub-satellite testing area, Southern coast of Crimea, monitoring, coastal current structure, coastal current dynamics, kinetic energy spectra, sea currents

Acknowledgments

The research is performed under state order on topic No. 0827-2019-0004 “Complex interdisciplinary research of oceanologic processes, which determine functioning and evolution of the Black and Azov Sea coastal ecosystems”.

For citation

Kuznetsov, A.S., Zima, V.V. and Shcherbachenko, S.V., 2020. Variability of Characteristics of the Coastal Current at the Southern Coast of Crimea in 2017–2019. Ecological Safety of Coastal and Shelf Zones of Sea, (3), pp. 5–16. doi:10.22449/2413-5577-2020-3-5-16 (in Russian).

DOI

10.22449/2413-5577-2019-3-4-18

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