Oceanographic Measurements in the Chukchi Sea and Baffin Bay - 1976

• Main Author: Garrison,G R
• Other Authors: WASHINGTON UNIV SEATTLE APPLIED PHYSICS LAB
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1977
• Subjects: Physical and Dynamic Oceanography; *OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA; *CHUKCHI SEA; *BAFFIN ISLAND; TEMPERATURE; ALASKA; FREEZING; SALINITY; OCEANOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT; *Baffin Bay; Barrow Canyon; PE62759N; WUMR01C2; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Baffin Bay; Baffin Island; Chukchi Sea; Arctic Basin; Baffin; Barrow; Chukchi; Davis Strait; Alaska
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA050225; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA050225

An oceanographic survey was conducted by helicopter in April 1976 in the ice-covered Chukchi Sea. This survey verified the existence of the bottom layer found a year earlier that had a temperature near the freezing point and a salinity relatively high for the Chukchi Sea. This bottom layer flows along Alaska's northwest coast, through the Barrow Canyon, and into the Arctic Ocean. Its path is clearly visible in the vertical profiles of temperature and salinity taken at several lines of stations across the coastal zone. The flow down the Barrow Canyon is opposed by a westward spreading of the temperature-maximum layer of the western Arctic Basin and by an apparent uprising, or surge, of warm, saline Atlantic water from its usual depth of 140 m in the Arctic Ocean to a depth of 75 m. Similar conditions were observed in the spring of 1975. Some oceanographic measurements from an icebreaker were also conducted in Davis Strait and Baffin Bay during late February and March 1976. Temperature and salinity profiles revealed a deep, warm layer in Davis Strait which extended northward, with diminishing temperature, into Baffin Bay. (Author)