THE CABBELING INSTABILITY IN THE HIGH LATITUDE SEA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS TO THE IRANIAN SEA

The physical properties of water have a significant effect on the ocean phenomena. Distribution of temperature, salinity, and density are the most important tools to develop physical insight into the structure of water column. The study of these physical oceanography quantities become more substantial in the area where different water mass are combined under different physical conditions (temperature and salinity). Among this region, Greenland Sea is the most important example of this area because the formation of water mass includes 9 water type according to swift and Aagaard (1981). In the course of water mass formation, some Physical phenomena can occur such as double diffusion and cabbeling. Doublediffusion is as a result of the difference between salinity and temperature distribution coefficients (Ruddick, 1983). Cabbeling occurs when two separate water parcels mix toform a third which sinks below both parcels. The combined water parcel is denser than the original two water parcels (Foster, 1972). There are many surveys toinvestigate the cabbeling and double diffusion due to the importance of these phenomena in oceanography. Study of double-diffusive and cabbeling in an environment of the Arctic front by Cottier and Venables (2007), Thermobaricity, cabbeling, and water-mass conversion by Mcdougal (1987) are some of these research. Kasajima and Johannessen (2009) investigate the Role of cabbeling in water densification in the Greenland Basin. Present work concentrates on the effect of cabbeling on the densification in high latitude sea (Greenland, Iceland, and the Norwegian Sea). To evaluate the stability of water column, the Brunt-Vaisala Frequency N and stability ratio Rρ is calculated by following equation (Eq.1).