INTRAANNUAL VARIABILITY OF SALINITY IN THE NORTHEASTERN NORWEGIAN SEA

L. I. Galerkin, S. G. Panfilova, and A. D. Shcherbinin

The annual course of salinity in the northeastern Norwegian Sea is divided into four natural seasons: winter (December—May) when salinity is maximal, summer (August) when it is minimal, spring (June—August) when the rate of freshening is the highest, and the fall for which the highest rate of salinization is typical. The fall is usually very short, not longer than a month, and comes in December or January. Due to a stabilizing effect of a permanent inflow of relatively warm and very salt waters from the Atlantic, the annual amplitude of the salinity variation along the axis of spreading the Atlantic water tongue is minimal. A contrast of summer and winter salinity values increases on the western and eastern peripheries of this tongue. In the northwestern part of the water area there is a salinity front dividing the Arctic and Atlantic waters in the sea surface layer, which exists all over the year. Analysis of climatic fields of meteorological variables has shown that the difference between precipitation and evaporation does not virtually affect the annual salinity course. Ice freezing and melting are the basic processes in a seasonal course of salinization and freshening. They are stipulated by heat exchange with the atmosphere and the heat transfer from the intermediate sea layers to the upper ones.