Physical Qualification and Quantification of the Water Masses in the Kongsfjorden-Krossfjorden System Cross Section

The Kongsfjorden-Krossfjorden system, situated on the northwest coast of Spitsbergen, is connected to the continental shelf slope by a trough, Kongsfjordrenna, that crosses the 50km wide shelf. Kongsfjorden is the southern arm of this fjord system, and has a maximum depth of 400m. The fjord system has no typical fjord sill, but Kongsfjordrenna seems to function as a sill of around 270 meters. This means that most of the water column in Kongsfjorden is susceptible to exchange with warm and salty Atlantic Water (AW) from the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC) flowing along the shelf slope and with colder and fresher water from the shelf. The water masses found in Kongsfjorden can be viewed on as a mixture between the AW, Winter Cooled Water (WCW) and fresh water either as melt water or river runoff. Winds at the west Spitsbergen coast cause Ekman drift to either pile up or remove surface water from the coast. The result is an altering of the stratification of the water outside the fjord system in the form of downwelling or upwelling. This builds up a horizontal pressure gradient between the coast and the fjord system, forcing water in or out of the fjord area. Conservation of volume demands that exchange takes place in both directions. The exchange with the adjacent shelf is shown to be related to irreversible exchange across the front between the AW along the shelf slope and the ArW on the shelf.