Observations of a Gap Flow at 80N

During the IPY/Thorpex-Norway observational campaign, the DLR-FA20 aircraft flew several missions in the Barents Sea equipped with its dropsonde and lidar platforms. On one occasion, the 27th of February 2008, a gap-flow event was measured at Hindlopen Strait, Svalbard archipelago. Relative weak upstream winds over the ice were funnelled through the Strait, resulting in gap winds above 19 m/s. Results from numerical investigations accompanying the observations will be presented and compared with gap-flow theory.

The talk aims at also presenting an overview of terrain related flow situations measured in the IPY/Thorpex-Norway campaign.