The Baltic Sea
In the semi-enclosed and shallow Baltic Sea there are no intense permanent currents. Drift currents caused by wind are variable in direction and velocity, which
usually do not exceed 10–15 cm/s. This sea is characterized by intense mesoscale
and submesoscale dynamics [8, 14–16, 19–21, 34]. The typical size of submesoscale eddies in the Baltic is 2.5 km [14] (R d is 7–10 km in the open sea and 1–
6 km in the shelf zone [25]). Examples of manifestation of submesoscale eddies in
the Baltic can be found in [8, 16, 20]. Some mechanisms of the formation of
submesoscale vortices in the sea are obvious: they are river runoff, frontal instability
(vortices at the boundary of mesoscale eddies), vortices at the terminals of filaments
in the upwelling zones. However, the mechanism of generation of closely packed
eddy fields of the type shown in Figs. 12 and 13 is still unclear.
Fig. 10 Submesoscale eddies south of Absheron peninsula (the Southwestern Caspian Sea,
Landsat-5, 02.06.2010)
Satellite Remote Sensing of Submesoscale Eddies …
407
In the semi-enclosed and shallow Baltic Sea there are no intense permanent currents. Drift currents caused by wind are variable in direction and velocity, which
usually do not exceed 10–15 cm/s. This sea is characterized by intense mesoscale
and submesoscale dynamics [8, 14–16, 19–21, 34]. The typical size of submesoscale eddies in the Baltic is 2.5 km [14] (R d is 7–10 km in the open sea and 1–
6 km in the shelf zone [25]). Examples of manifestation of submesoscale eddies in
the Baltic can be found in [8, 16, 20]. Some mechanisms of the formation of
submesoscale vortices in the sea are obvious: they are river runoff, frontal instability
(vortices at the boundary of mesoscale eddies), vortices at the terminals of filaments
in the upwelling zones. However, the mechanism of generation of closely packed
eddy fields of the type shown in Figs. 12 and 13 is still unclear.
Fig. 10 Submesoscale eddies south of Absheron peninsula (the Southwestern Caspian Sea,
Landsat-5, 02.06.2010)
Satellite Remote Sensing of Submesoscale Eddies …
407