Evaluation of the Water Masses Mixing Process in the Area of Danube River Discharge

Abstract

A series of results of data analysis is presented in this paper, carried for the 2020-2021 marine hydrological cycle. The method included the collection, processing, analysis and archiving of data sets (and information) recorded in the field and obtained from remote sensing (satellite data). The data was required to evaluate the hydrodynamic processes in the coastal/marine area, including the mouths of the Danube, the natural promontories, and marine obstacles such as the ports jetties. Data were collected during the oceanographic expeditions carried over June 2020 and July 2021, on the spatial extension of the Romanian coastal monitoring network. Measurements of physical, chemical, and hydrological parameters were performed in the areas of Sulina, Sf. Gheorghe, Sahalin in order to observe and evaluate the mixing phenomenon of water masses in the area of Danube discharge.

The analysis of the physical and chemical parameters, associated with the hydrological parameters, were emphasizing the influence of the coastal water masses dynamics on the mixing processes afferent to the Danube Delta’s offshore areas, due to the physiographic and hydro-morphologic characteristics of an asymmetric delta.