MESOSCALE CHARACTERISTICS OF ICE FLOE SIZE VARIABILITY ON THE EAST SAKHALIN SHELF

摘要

The paper is devoted to an estimation of the of the ice floe distribution by the sizes on the Russia Far East area of intense oil exploration and production. Air reconnaissance maps of the East Sakhalin Shelf made in 1960-1986 years have been used to convert into numerical data. The total volume of the samples exceeded 16000 records of each parameter. All available data were taken into account, including those obtained with the help of coastal outposts and satellite performed data for air reconnaisance map checking. This allowed us to derive representative results. All the data concerned for the middle of ten-day period. Some areas with 1°x 1°grid cell size were selected for comparison to each other in ice season period from November to June. The data on each square were averaged and related to its center. The results are presented in histograms to compare both coastal and offshore changeability as well as the north and south parts of the researched region. The influence of possible dynamical and thermal processes on the distribution of the ice floes by size is discussed.