Propagation of Waters from the Kerch Strait in the Black Sea

Abstract

Turbid and brackish Azov waters penetrating through the Kerch Strait significantly modify the biooptical and thermohaline features in NorthWestern part of the Black Sea. The Kerch Strait itself is another additional powerful source of suspended matter. Analysis of the high-resolution Landsat imagery and MODIS satellite data on the total suspended matter (TSM) concentration and sea surface temperature is carried out in the present work to study the Kerch waters propagation in the Black Sea. It is shown that Kerch waters most frequently propagate westward from the strait in the form of a narrow jet having a width of 1-10 km. Turbid waters are mainly observed in shallow areas do not crossing isobaths of 20 meters. In winter such jets are observed in both optical (turbid) and infrared measurements (cold water). On average, they stretch from the Kerch Strait to Cape Meganom and cover the whole Feodosia Bay. Strong northeast storms increase the outflow of the Azov waters from the strait and intensify the western propagation of Azov waters. The propagation area and distance from the source of waters with high TSM are related to the strength and duration of storms. During southern storms, vast areas with large turbidity, which are not related to the penetration of Kerch waters, are observed in the vicinity of the Kerch Strait along the shores of the Kerch and Taman Peninsulas. Such increase of turbidity is a result of wave action, that lead to the coast erosion and resuspension of bottom sediments near the clay cliffs. High values of TSM are mostly observed up to the isobath of 50 meters. In some cases, Kerch waters can be transported offshore on the large distances upon the action of mesoscale eddies advection.

Water exchange between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait

“…A large salinity difference between the Azov and Black seas results in substantially different spreading and mixing dynamics of waters that flow from the Sea of Azov into the Black Sea, compared with waters that flow from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov. Inflow of brackish waters from the Sea of Azov into the Black Sea forms a surface-advected AP, which spreads over wide areas (up to 2000 km 3 ) in the north-eastern part of the Black Sea (Aleskerovà et al, 2017;Kubryakov et al, 2019). Due to elevated concentrations of terrigenous sediments, nutrients, and anthropogenic pollutants in the waters of the Sea of Azov, the AP strongly influences physical, biological, and geochemical processes in the areas adjacent to the Kerch Strait in the north-eastern part of the Black Sea (Lomakin et al, 2010;Kolyuchkina et al, 2012;Aleskerovà et al, 2017;Izhitsky and Zavialov, 2017;and Zavialov et al, 2018).…”

“…Inflow of brackish waters from the Sea of Azov into the Black Sea forms a surface-advected AP, which spreads over wide areas (up to 2000 km 3 ) in the north-eastern part of the Black Sea (Aleskerovà et al, 2017;Kubryakov et al, 2019). Due to elevated concentrations of terrigenous sediments, nutrients, and anthropogenic pollutants in the waters of the Sea of Azov, the AP strongly influences physical, biological, and geochemical processes in the areas adjacent to the Kerch Strait in the north-eastern part of the Black Sea (Lomakin et al, 2010;Kolyuchkina et al, 2012;Aleskerovà et al, 2017;Izhitsky and Zavialov, 2017;and Zavialov et al, 2018). The AP is regularly entrained by mesoscale eddies formed in the Black Sea near the Kerch Strait that can significantly intensify cross-shelf transport of low-salinity water in the Black Sea (Kubryakov et al, 2019).…”

“…As a result, various ocean surface characteristics measured by satellite instruments can be used to study spreading of the surface-advected AP in the north-eastern part of the Black Sea. Previous related studies used sea surface temperature (SST), concentrations of Chl a, and TSM retrieved from optical satellite data (Ivanov and Belokopytov, 2011;Aleskerovà et al, 2017;and Kubryakov et al, 2019). However, all of these characteristics cannot be used for a straightforward identification of the inflow of brackish waters from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea, hereafter referred to as AI, and identification of boundaries of the AP due to the reasons that follow.…”

“…Many previous studies were focused on physical, biological, and geochemical processes related to water exchange between two large bodies of water through a narrow strait in different world regions; in particular this includes the Baltic and North seas through the Danish Straits (Matthäus and Lass, 1995;Sayin and Kraus, 1996;Jacobsen and Trebuchet, 2000;Sellschoppa et al, 2006;and She et al, 2007), the Black and Mediterranean seas through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits (Yuce, 1996;Andersen et al, 1997;Gregg et al, 1999;Falina et al, 2017;Sozer and Ozsoy, 2017;and Stanev et al, 2017), the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar (Garret, 1996;Sannino et al, 2002;Beranger et al, 2005;and Soto-Navarro et al, 2015), the Bering and Chukchi seas through the Bering Strait (Woodgate et al, 2006(Woodgate et al, , 2010(Woodgate et al, , 2012Danielson et al, 2014), and the Patos Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean (Castelao and Moller, 2006;Marques et al, 2009). A number of papers addressed the structure of and variability in circulation in the Kerch Strait (Simonov and Altman, 1991;Lomakin et al, 2010Lomakin et al, , 2016Lomakin et al, , 2017Sapozhnikov et al, 2011;Chepyzhenko et al, 2015;and Kubryakov et al, 2019) and the influence of water inflow from the Sea of Azov on the coastal ecosystem in the north-eastern part of the Black Sea (Lomakin et al, 2010;Kolyuchkina et al, 2012;Aleskerovà et al, 2017;Izhitsky and Zavialov, 2017;and Zavialov et al,...…”

Database of Observations of the Internal Waves in the World Ocean

“…The communications of international and federal importance are also located in the coastal zone. Therefore, there is no doubt that the study of wave processes in the Black Sea [3][4][5][6] is of extremely important ecological, economic and economical importance. The seasonal variability in the number of observations of internal waves in the Black Sea is as follows: in the summer period -52, in the autumn and spring -3 each and in the winter -1 (Fig.…”