Behaviors of the Yukon River Sediment Plume in the Bering Sea: Relations to Glacier-Melt Discharge and Sediment Load
Sediment plumes, released to the Bering Sea from the delta front of the Yukon River, Alaska, are initiated mainly by glacier-melt sediment runoffs in the glacierized regions of the Yukon River drainage basin. The surface sediment plumes are extended around the fan-shaped Yukon River delta, which is...
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2073-4441/13/19/2646/ 2023-09-05T13:18:31+02:00 Behaviors of the Yukon River Sediment Plume in the Bering Sea: Relations to Glacier-Melt Discharge and Sediment Load Kazuhisa Chikita Tomoyuki Wada Isao Kudo Sei-Ichi Saitoh Toru Hirawake Mitsuhiro Toratani agris 2021-09-26 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/w13192646 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Water and Climate Change https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w13192646 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Water; Volume 13; Issue 19; Pages: 2646 Yukon River sediment load surface sediment plume density underflow MODIS image Text 2021 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/w13192646 2023-08-13T23:52:31Z Sediment plumes, released to the Bering Sea from the delta front of the Yukon River, Alaska, are initiated mainly by glacier-melt sediment runoffs in the glacierized regions of the Yukon River drainage basin. The surface sediment plumes are extended around the fan-shaped Yukon River delta, which is followed by the northwestward dispersion. During continuous measurements of the Yukon River discharge and sediment load, behaviors of the sediment plumes were explored by shipboard and coastal observations in the Bering Sea. At the high river sediment load of ca. 2500 kg/s, the plume partially plunged into the sea bottom layer. The plunging probably originated in the nepheloid-layer formation from the flocculation of river-suspended sediment, of which more than 90% wt. is silt and clay (grain size d < 63 μm). In order to numerically obtain the area of the surface sediment plumes, a satellite image analysis was performed by using three near-infrared bands in MODIS/Aqua or MODIS/Terra. The plume area was significantly correlated (R2 = 0.735, p < 0.01) to the sediment load averaged for the two days with time lags of 20 days and 21 days to the date of a certain satellite image. Hence, the dispersion of plume-suspended sediment appears to be controlled by the sediment runoff events in the Yukon River rather than the northward “Alaskan Coastal Water”. Text Bering Sea glacier Yukon river Alaska Yukon MDPI Open Access Publishing Bering Sea Yukon Water 13 19 2646 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
Yukon River sediment load surface sediment plume density underflow MODIS image |
spellingShingle |
Yukon River sediment load surface sediment plume density underflow MODIS image Kazuhisa Chikita Tomoyuki Wada Isao Kudo Sei-Ichi Saitoh Toru Hirawake Mitsuhiro Toratani Behaviors of the Yukon River Sediment Plume in the Bering Sea: Relations to Glacier-Melt Discharge and Sediment Load |
topic_facet |
Yukon River sediment load surface sediment plume density underflow MODIS image |
description |
Sediment plumes, released to the Bering Sea from the delta front of the Yukon River, Alaska, are initiated mainly by glacier-melt sediment runoffs in the glacierized regions of the Yukon River drainage basin. The surface sediment plumes are extended around the fan-shaped Yukon River delta, which is followed by the northwestward dispersion. During continuous measurements of the Yukon River discharge and sediment load, behaviors of the sediment plumes were explored by shipboard and coastal observations in the Bering Sea. At the high river sediment load of ca. 2500 kg/s, the plume partially plunged into the sea bottom layer. The plunging probably originated in the nepheloid-layer formation from the flocculation of river-suspended sediment, of which more than 90% wt. is silt and clay (grain size d < 63 μm). In order to numerically obtain the area of the surface sediment plumes, a satellite image analysis was performed by using three near-infrared bands in MODIS/Aqua or MODIS/Terra. The plume area was significantly correlated (R2 = 0.735, p < 0.01) to the sediment load averaged for the two days with time lags of 20 days and 21 days to the date of a certain satellite image. Hence, the dispersion of plume-suspended sediment appears to be controlled by the sediment runoff events in the Yukon River rather than the northward “Alaskan Coastal Water”. |
format |
Text |
author |
Kazuhisa Chikita Tomoyuki Wada Isao Kudo Sei-Ichi Saitoh Toru Hirawake Mitsuhiro Toratani |
author_facet |
Kazuhisa Chikita Tomoyuki Wada Isao Kudo Sei-Ichi Saitoh Toru Hirawake Mitsuhiro Toratani |
author_sort |
Kazuhisa Chikita |
title |
Behaviors of the Yukon River Sediment Plume in the Bering Sea: Relations to Glacier-Melt Discharge and Sediment Load |
title_short |
Behaviors of the Yukon River Sediment Plume in the Bering Sea: Relations to Glacier-Melt Discharge and Sediment Load |
title_full |
Behaviors of the Yukon River Sediment Plume in the Bering Sea: Relations to Glacier-Melt Discharge and Sediment Load |
title_fullStr |
Behaviors of the Yukon River Sediment Plume in the Bering Sea: Relations to Glacier-Melt Discharge and Sediment Load |
title_full_unstemmed |
Behaviors of the Yukon River Sediment Plume in the Bering Sea: Relations to Glacier-Melt Discharge and Sediment Load |
title_sort |
behaviors of the yukon river sediment plume in the bering sea: relations to glacier-melt discharge and sediment load |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/w13192646 |
op_coverage |
agris |
geographic |
Bering Sea Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Bering Sea Yukon |
genre |
Bering Sea glacier Yukon river Alaska Yukon |
genre_facet |
Bering Sea glacier Yukon river Alaska Yukon |
op_source |
Water; Volume 13; Issue 19; Pages: 2646 |
op_relation |
Water and Climate Change https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w13192646 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/w13192646 |
container_title |
Water |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
19 |
container_start_page |
2646 |
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1776199461787140096 |