This book presents a comprehensive summary of our research conducted across an extensive area surrounding Spitsbergen, encompassing the Barents, Greenland, and Norwegian Seas, as well as the fjords of Spitsbergen. It consolidates findings previously published in scientific journals and conference proceedings, while also introducing new data from recent investigations of geophysical flows and wave dynamics in the region. The majority of the results are derived from field observations, which are complemented by numerical modeling of oceanic currents and wave processes.
The fieldwork incorporates a diverse range of measurement techniques, including moored instrument arrays in the Nordic and Arctic seas, CTD, LADCP and ADV casts obtained from both vessels and ice platforms, wave buoys, and satellite-tracked beacons deployed on drifting ice floes and icebergs. Particular attention is devoted to the study of internal waves occurring beneath sea ice as well as in ice-free oceanic environments.
The drift, deformation, and disintegration of sea ice and icebergs in the study area have been examined using satellite observations of ice motion in combination with data from beacon transmissions. Water pressure measurements below fast ice enabled the detection of a tsunami wave generated by a glacier motion within a fjord. Additional investigations focused on flexural–gravity waves propagating through sea ice and on the surface signatures of various wave types within the ocean, corroborated by subsurface observations of phenomena such as wind waves originating from open water, seiches, and internal waves.
Finally, we examined freshwater discharge from tidewater glaciers entering the marine environment of Spitsbergen fjords, as well as the formation of sea ice from tidal jets of seawater flowing beneath ice cover in narrow straits.
Aleksey Marchenko graduated in mechanics in 1982 from the Lomonosov Moscow State University and then received a Ph.D. in 1987 and a doctoral degree in 1997. He has background in continuum mechanics and fluid dynamics. His career developed at the Ishlinsky Institute for Problems in Mechanics and Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia, 1985-2006), and then at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) (Longyearbyen, Norway), where he is Professor of Arctic Technology Department since 2006. His research and teaching focuses on ice physics and mechanics, wave processes in ice covered waters and ocean tides. He elaborated mathematical models and conducted numerical simulations, field and laboratory works. He organized and participated in the field works on drift ice in the Barents Sea and land fast ice in Spitsbergen fjords annually from 2007 to 2022. Since 2010 he is a member of the Norwegian Scientific Academy for Polar Research. Since 2005 he is a member of the National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (Russia). From 2005 to 2022 he was a member of of the International Committee of the International Conference on Port and Ocean Engineering Under Arctic Conditions (POAC).
Eugene Morozov graduated in oceanography in 1970 from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and then received a Ph.D. in 1975 and a doctoral degree in 1990. In 2025 he became corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is a field oceanographer and a specialist in the observations in the open ocean. Eugene Morozov is Head of Laboratory of Hydrological Processes at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology in Moscow (Russia). His research is focused on oceanic internal waves and large-scale circulation of the ocean. He works on data acquisition, data processing, interpretations, and partly numerical modeling. Since 2002, he has been interested in the abyssal flows in the Atlantic Ocean and abyssal circulation, especially in the flows in the deep fractures. Since 2008, he has been also working on the problems of arctic oceanography in cooperation with the scientists from the University Centre in Svalbard. During his oceanographic career he participated in 54 long oceanic cruises in all oceans of the globe and in 15 coastal expeditions. His field works are related to internal tides and currents in the ocean such as the Gulf Stream, Kuroshio and their rings, Antarctic Circumpolar Current, Falkland Current, California Current, equatorial countercurrents in the Indian and Atlantic oceans. In 1999 he became a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Ocean (IAPSO). From 2011 to 2015 he was the President of this Association.
Dmitry Frey graduated in applied physics and mathematics in 2014 from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and then received a Ph.D. in 2019. Since 2015, he has been working at the Laboratory of Hydrological Processes of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology as a senior scientist. His research focuses on different aspects of ocean circulation including bottom gravity flows, western boundary currents, Arctic and Antarctic oceanography, and equatorial undercurrents. He is a field oceanographer and specialist in numerical modeling.
Nataliya Marchenko is a research associate at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), located in Longyearbyen (78° N) Norway. She graduated from the Lomonosov Moscow State University (1988) and defended her PhD thesis devoted to forest fire risk assessment, using the Geographical Information System (GIS) in 1992. Since 2006, Dr N. Marchenko works at the Arctic Technology Department of UNIS and does research on sea ice, navigation, and risk assessment in Polar waters, laser scanning and GIS. Her scientific interests also include coastal dynamic and ecology.
