Samodurov A.S., Chukharev A.M., Nosova A.V., Globina L.V.
The analysis of field data at the shelf break in the Black Sea demonstrates increasing of vertical eddy diffusivity by an order of magnitude on the average with respect to the open sea conditions with the same stratification. The use of a simple model showed that increasing in the energy of quasi-inertial waves in this region can be considered as the most probable cause of the mentioned experimental fact. This phenomenon results in considerable decreasing of the Richardson number in quasi-horizontal wave currents and, as a consequence, in-creasing of the mixing intensity and vertical diffusion.
