Oceanographic conditions in the marginal ice zone north of Svalbard in early fall 1979 with an emphasis on mesoscale processes

Abstract

During September–October 1979 the Norwegian Remote Sensing Experiment was carried out in the marginal ice zone north of Svalbard. Convergence of the ice cover is correlated with along‐ice edge winds with the ice to the right, while divergence occurs during office winds or calm conditions. A wind‐driven ice edge jet is observed. Wind‐driven upwelling of the pycnocline of up to 7 m was present along the ice edge during a 10‐ to 15‐m/s easterly wind event. The upwelling is due to Ekman divergence at the ice edge, caused by higher wind stress over ice than over open water. The ice edge meanders with a scale of 20–40 km and sheds eddies with a scale of 5 to 15 km into the open water. This scale is of the same order as the Rossby radius of deformation. Eddies with the same scale are also seen in the conductivity, temperature, and depth observations. Conditions during the experiment were such that barotropic instabilities could have generated these eddies.