Circulation and Thermohaline Structure along the Chukchi-Beaufort Continental Slope

My long-term goal is to understand the mean and time-varying density structure and circulation dynamics of the continental slope of the Arctic Ocean and how the slope interacts with the adjacent shelves and basin. The circumpolar boundary currents of the Arctic Ocean are important in the distributio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Weingartner, Thomas
Other Authors: ALASKA UNIV FAIRBANKS INST OF MARINE SCIENCE
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2000
Subjects:
Physical and Dynamic Oceanography
*CONTINENTAL SLOPES
*OCEAN CURRENTS
ARCTIC OCEAN
BASINS(GEOGRAPHIC)
CONTINENTAL SHELVES
DENSITY
DYNAMICS
INTERACTIONS
OCEAN BOTTOM TOPOGRAPHY
PRESSURE
SALINITY
SAMPLING
TEMPERATURE
WIND
*THERMOHALINE STRUCTURE
*CHUKCHI-BEAUFORT CONTINENTAL SLOPE
DENSITY FIELDS
BIOGEOCHEMISTRY
Arctic
Arctic Ocean
Chukchi
Online Access:http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA609730
http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA609730
Description
Summary:My long-term goal is to understand the mean and time-varying density structure and circulation dynamics of the continental slope of the Arctic Ocean and how the slope interacts with the adjacent shelves and basin. The circumpolar boundary currents of the Arctic Ocean are important in the distribution and exchange of mass, heat, and material around the basin and between the shelves and the interior ocean. However, this province of the Arctic Ocean is the least understood and sampled portion of the Arctic. The field effort and data analyses are addressing the following questions and objectives: 1. What is the decorrelation length scale of the alongslope density field? Does this length scale differ between the Chukchi and Beaufort slopes? 2. How does the magnitude of the alongshore pressure gradient vary along the Chukchi-Beaufort continental slope? Are these changes associated with distinctly different water masses? 3. How does the cross-slope pressure gradient vary along the Beaufort-Chukchi continental slope? 4. Is the flow in the upper halocline consistent with the thermal wind balance? 5. Combine the temperature-salinity data with biogeochemical measurements to better define the water masses encountered along the slope.

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