Home Atmosphere Sea Ice Ocean Land Greenland Biology Ocean

• Main Authors: A. Proshutinsky, J. Morison
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; Beaufort Sea; Fram Strait; Sea ice; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.567.5026; http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/twimberley/EnviroPhilo/Ocean.pdf

Surface circulation regime The circulation of the sea ice cover and ocean surface layer are closely coupled and are primarily wind-driven (Proshutinsky and Johnson, 1997). Data from satellites and drifting buoys indicate that the entire period of 2000-2006 has been characterized by an anticyclonic (clockwise) circulation regime due to a higher sea level atmospheric pressure over the region north of Alaska, relative to the 1948-2005 mean, and the prevalence of anticyclonic winds (Figure O1). Under these conditions, the clockwise circulation pattern in the Beaufort Sea region (the Beaufort Gyre) tends to be relatively strong. Conversely, in the cyclonic regime the clockwise circulation pattern in the Beaufort Sea region weakens, and the flow across the basin, from the Siberian and Russian coasts to Fram Strait (the Transpolar Drift), shifts poleward. The cyclonic pattern dominated during 1989-1996; the anticyclonic pattern has prevailed since 1997. The dominance of the anticyclonic regime during last decade of 1997-2006 is consistent with the Arctic Oscillation (AO) index (Figure A1) which fluctuated about zero indicating a relatively low level of influence from the Atlantic on these Arctic processes (Rigor et al., 2002). Heat and freshwater content Figure O1. Sea ice drift pattern (arrows) in October-May 2000-2006 and sea surface atmospheric pressure distribution. Sea level atmospheric pressure is shown by lines (hPa)