THE SOUTHERN FLUX OF SEA-ICE IN THE TATARSKIY STRAIT, JAPAN SEA AND THE GENERATION OF THE LIMAN CURRENT

The circulation in the surface waters of the Japan Sea is driven in pa rt by thermohaline forcing associated with the flux of cold, low-salin ity water from the Tatarskiy Strait. Existing numerical models suggest that this water contributes to the Liman Current, which flows from no rtheast to southwest along the Russian coast. The major source of Japa n Sea freshwater is the Amur River, which flows into the sea through T atarskiy Strait, but has a near-zero minimum during January to March. As an alternate source of freshwater to the surface layer, we derive f rom meteorological and remote sensing data for the 1992-1994 winters, the magnitude of the freshwater flux generated by the southward transp ort and melt of pack ice in the Tatarskiy Strait. Given characteristic geostrophic northerly wind speeds of 10 m s(-1) and air temperatures of -13 degrees C, the winter freshwater flux into the ice edge is abou t 10 km(3) month(-1). Although no oceanographic or sea ice data exist for the Strait, comparison of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images of ice processes in the Strait with those in the Bering Sea where oceano graphic data exist suggests that ice edge melting in the Strait genera tes an oceanic frontal structure and a westward geostrophic current, w hich we hypothesize feeds into the Liman Current. Comparison of the re sults of a simple baroclinic model driven by this freshwater flux with a section across the Liman Current yields comparable density differen ces and transports. In summary, our results show that the freshwater f lux associated with the southward ice transport in the Tatarskiy Strai t may contribute to the driving of the Liman Current during winter.