NATURAL HYDROLOGICAL SEASONS IN THE NORTHEASTERN NORWEGIAN SEA

S. G. Panfilova, A. D. Shcherbinin, and D. L. Aleinik

The dates of natural hydrological seasons are determined with the help of the methods developed by one of the above authors based on the climatic water temperature data. A prolonged winter (5—7 months), short summer (1—2 months), whose advent shifts with depth from August to September—October, are characteristic of the surface layer of the entire study area (68—79ºN, 5ºW—25ºE). The spring warming period increases with depth, while the terms of fall cooling are drastically reduced. The field of the amplitude of annual water temperature trend has a zone of the least values within which the sunken atomic submarine Komsomolets is located. This zone is well marked at all levels and spreads from southwest to northeast. The work is a part of ecooceanologic monitoring of the water area in the vicinity of the ASM loss.