Tidal Mixing Fronts in the Kuril Islands Region

Analysis of climatic mean monthly sea surface temperature maps has shown that there is a stable cold water region in the central part of the Kuril Islands between the Vries (Friz) Strait and the Fourth Kuril Strait during the summer period. Vertical temperature profiles obtained within this cold zone indicate that waters in some areas of the shelf of the Kuril Islands are completely mixed in the layer from the surface to the bottom. The speeds of tidal currents in the Kuril Islands region are high. Tidal mixing on the shelf caused by the dissipation of tidal kinetic energy due to bottom friction during the summer warming period leads to tidal mixing fronts, which separate the cold mixed waters of shallow areas from the warm stratified waters of the Sea of Okhotsk and Pacific Ocean. Satellite data suggest that submesoscale eddies and wind-generated currents may be locally important in particular periods as a mechanism of exchange of properties between tidal mixing regions and adjacent deep-sea areas. The survey results are consistent for the distribution of energy dissipation for the K1 tide in the Kuril Islands region. The critical value of the Simpson-Hunter parameter K = 3.2 determines the position of tidal mixing fronts on the shelf of the Kuril Islands.