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Submesoscale dynamics in the heart of the Baltic Sea: High-resolution model reveals new insights

Satellite photo of the Baltic Sea in the area of the island of Gotland with clearly visible blue-green algae blooms
Ocean dynamics filaments, fronts and eddies no larger than 1 to 10 km can cause nutrient transport into the surface water and thus trigger such blue-green algae blooms as shown here around the Baltic Sea island Gotland. (Photo: IOW / MODIS)

With the help of highly resolved realistic model simulations physicists at the IOW have succeeded in depicting the so-called submesoscale dynamics in the Eastern Gotland Basin – the deepest of the large basins of the central Baltic Sea. Thus, the researchers gained the opportunity to investigate these highly dynamic phenomena, which – although being known for decades through satellite images – are up to now only scarcely studied and poorly understood because of their small size and short-lived nature. The model results confirm that submesoscale processes play an important role in the heart of the Baltic Sea in terms of both, energy balance and ecology.

Read the full press release; for a larger view of the stellite image, click on it:

application/pdf 20210310_press_Submesoscale_Dynamics_Baltic_Sea_en.pdf (127.2 KiB)

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