On the Problem of the Neva River Flood Waves Identification

E. A. Zakharchuk and V. N. Sukhachev

Based on the analysis of the measurements of hydrometeorological characteristics, the identification is corroborated of the Neva River flood waves as the baroclinic topographic waves. It is demonstrated that during the formation and maximum development of the most significant sea level rises in the Neva Bay, the stratification in the Gulf of Finland still remains pronounced despite the storm conditions. The baroclinic nature of the flood wave is indicated by the significant changes in the dispersion of currents with depth with their direction changing to the reverse one as it occurs in the first baroclinic mode wave. Directions of major axes of the standard deviation ellipses are oriented not along the isobaths as it should be in case of long gravity waves (being the longitudinal ones) but are extended across the bottom topography contours that is typical of gradient-vorticity waves assigned to the class of horizontal transverse waves.