An Ocean Observing System for the Bering Strait, the Pacific Gateway to the Arctic

• Main Author: Rebecca Woodgate
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2010
• Subjects: AON; Arctic; Bering Strait; Pacific
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/urn:uuid:cd1bd9e7-2ad6-4d6a-9d58-ee8c9df3fe30

Given the significant role of Pacific waters in the Arctic, quantifying the Bering Strait throughflow and its properties is important to understanding the present functioning of the Arctic system, as well as the causes and prediction of present and future Arctic change. This makes a Bering Strait monitoring system a vital component of the Arctic Observing Network (AON). Thus, this proposal is for an international project to: 1) measure the velocities and water properties of the Bering Strait throughflow, and quantify oceanic fluxes of volume, freshwater, heat and nutrients through the strait; 2) design (and calibrate) an optimum monitoring system for oceanic fluxes through the Bering Strait on daily to interannual time scales, using in situ, satellite, and numerical weather prediction results; and 3) utilize the system design to improve and extend previous Bering Strait flux estimates back several decades and provide uncertainty estimates for all fluxes.