Wind-Driven Coastal Upwelling near Large River Deltas in the Laptev and East-Siberian Seas

Abstract

The Lena, Kolyma, and Indigirka rivers are among the largest rivers that inflow to the Arctic Ocean. Their discharges form a freshened surface water mass over a wide area in the Laptev and East-Siberian seas and govern many local physical, geochemical, and biological processes. In this study we report coastal upwelling events that are regularly manifested on satellite imagery by increased sea surface turbidity and decreased sea surface temperature at certain areas adjacent to the Lena Delta in the Laptev Sea and the Kolyma and Indigirka deltas in the East-Siberian Sea. These events are formed under strong easterly and southeasterly wind forcing and are estimated to occur during up to 10%–30% of ice-free periods at the study region. Coastal upwelling events induce intense mixing of the Lena, Kolyma, and Indigirka plumes with subjacent saline sea. These plumes are significantly transformed and diluted while spreading over the upwelling areas; therefore, their salinity and depths abruptly increase, while stratification abruptly decreases in the vicinity of their sources. This feature strongly affects the structure of the freshened surface layer during ice-free periods and, therefore, influences circulation, ice formation, and many other processes at the Laptev and East-Siberian seas.