Heat transfer in the Southern Baltic Sea

The balance of energy supplied to the sea surface in the Baltic Sea proper is positive, which means that this region absorbs more energy than it releases to the atmosphere. Further transport of this energy in the form of heat is transported deep into the water column. It has been shown that differences between individual basins of the Baltic Proper appear along with the depth. The temperature signal, resulting from seasonal changes in the amount of solar energy supplied to the sea surface and the conditions of energy exchange between the sea and the atmosphere, propagates the fastest into the water column in the Gdańsk Deep, where it takes 37 days to a depth of 50 meters. In the Bornholm Basin, the speed of this signal is 71 days.