2003), Shelfbreak circulation in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea, paper presented at

• Main Author: Robert S. Pickart
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Physical; Fronts and jets; 4536 Oceanography; Hydrography; KEYWORDS; boundary current; Bering Strait; Beaufort Sea
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.562.631; http://www.whoi.edu/science/PO/pickart/pickart_pubs_pdf/JGR_2004a.pdf

[1] Historical hydrographic and current meter data are used to investigate the properties and circulation at the shelf edge of the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. Thirty-three individual cross-sections, spanning the time period 1950 to 1987, are combined in a topographical framework to produce mean vertical hydrographic sections, as well as a section of mean absolute geostrophic velocity referenced using the current meter data. This reveals the presence of a narrow (order 20 km) eastward current, referred to as the Beaufort shelfbreak jet. The jet has three distinct seasonal configurations: In late-spring to late-summer, cold, winter-transformed Bering water is advected in a subsurface current; from mid-summer to early fall a surface intensified current advects predominantly Bering summer water; and from mid-fall to mid-spring, under easterly winds, the jet transports upwelled Atlantic water. The volume transport of the jet represents a significant fraction of the inflowing transport through Bering Strait. While the characteristics and flow of the winter-transformed Bering water vary interannually, this water mass ventilates predominantly the