The Pacific Gateway to the Arctic-Quantifying and Understanding Bering Strait Oceanic Fluxes

• Main Author: Rebecca Woodgate
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2009
• Subjects: AON; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Chukchi Sea; Bering Strait; Canada; Pacific; Chukchi; International Polar Year; IPY; North Atlantic; Sea ice; Study of Environmental Arctic Change; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/urn:uuid:0019c318-d3be-4d1c-9f38-c26432ecfa58

This project is a collaboration between Woodgate, UW (0632154), and Weingartner, UAF (0631713). The Bering Strait, a narrow (~ 85 km wide), shallow (~ 50 m deep) strait at the northern end of the Pacific, is the only ocean gateway between the Pacific and the Arctic. Although the flow through the strait is small in volume, due to its remarkable properties (high heat and freshwater content, low density, high nutrients) it has a startling strong influence, not only on the Chukchi Sea and the Arctic Ocean, but also on the North Atlantic overturning circulation and possibly world climate. At a time when dramatic change, especially the retreat of sea ice, is observed in the Bering and Chukchi seas and the Arctic, we have measured significant increases of Bering Strait fluxes of volume, freshwater and heat, the heat flux in 2004 being the maximum recorded in the last 15 years. This research, also in collaboration with Russian, Canadian and Japanese colleagues, is an observationally focused study of the entire Bering Strait region, consisting of a high resolution mooring array, deployed from 2007-2009, covering the two channels of the strait and one climate site to the north of the strait, supported by annual conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) surveys and mooring servicing, satellite data and theoretical and modeling results. The science objectives are: 1) to measure the velocities and water properties of the Bering Strait throughflow; 2) to understand the physical processes influencing the properties of the Bering Strait throughflow, with special focus on mechanisms driving change, and impacts on the Arctic Ocean; 3) to quantify oceanic fluxes of volume, freshwater, heat, nutrients and chlorophyll biomass through the strait; 4) to design an optimum monitoring system for oceanic fluxes through the Bering Strait. Relevance to the International Polar Year (IPY): The Bering Strait is recognized as a key ocean gateway by the Arctic Observing Network plans of SEARCH (Study of Environmental Arctic Change), the National Academies report, and international IPY projects. Our proposed work is the lead of an international (US-Russian-Canadian-Japanese) IPY project, built on our International Council for Science (ICSU) endorsed IPY proposal for the Bering Strait. The work is also a key element of the IPY projects COME (Canada Ocean Monitoring Experiment - studying linkages among the subarctic and arctic waters around Canada), 66N (Ocean transports across 66N from satellite altimetry, numerical models and in situ observations), and iAOOS (international Arctic Ocean Observing System). Our approach includes a pulse of activity in the IPY years, a legacy of data and infrastructure, training the next generation of scientists, and outreach to the public.