Scientists Create First Digital Atlas of Arctic Ocean Internal Waves
Russian scientists have identified for the first time exactly where internal waves form in the western Arctic Ocean. These hidden oscillations mix layers of water at different temperatures and transport organic matter that supports marine life.
Researchers at the Marine Hydrophysical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Sevastopol have created the world’s first atlas of these waves. They analyzed more than 3,400 radar images taken between 2007 and 2020, in summer and fall when the ocean was free of ice. Over the 13-year period, the scientists identified more than 2,400 groups of waves, most often in the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea. Their number increased 17-fold as the ice melted.
Igor Kozlov, the project leader, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences and head of the Laboratory of Marine Polar Research, explained that the waves are generated by tidal currents flowing over uneven seafloors, ocean eddies and freshwater flows from rivers. The strongest waves occur where these factors overlap.
Reaching heights of 10 to 15 meters, such waves can interfere with navigation and pipeline construction. The atlas will help improve forecasts of ice melt and heat distribution in the ocean. The research was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, and the results were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans.
