Peculiarities of the temperature field in the cold intermediate layer of the Black Sea

During the summer heating, the thermocline conserves the cold intermediate layer (CIL) from above and the halocline conserves it from below. The role of the volume absorption of solar irradiance by water and that of the horizontal heat transport increases in the process of the CIL transformation. Surface particles travel around the entire sea transported by the main stream of the Black Sea Rim Current and, on the average, return back after 100 days, while the particles of the CIL cover this distance in four months. Thus, the temperature of the CIL in this stream strongly depends on advection. The order of heat fluxes in the CIL from above q down arrow and below q up arrow is estimated for July. In the deepwater part of the sea, q down arrow = 3.9 x 10(-5) and q up arrow = 2.4 x 10(-5) cal/cm(2)s. From July to September, the temperature growth in the core of the CIL was 0.5 degreesC. Two-thirds of this growth is due to the absorption of solar irradiance and about one-third is due to q down arrow + q up arrow. By the end of water heating (September), the CIL temperature in the horizontal direction over the entire sea basin changes by 0.1-0.2 degreesC only.