Two Configurations of the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current in Summer
Data from a closely spaced array of moorings situated across the Beaufort Sea shelfbreak at 152°W are used to study the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current, with emphasis on its configuration during the summer season. Two dynamically distinct states of the current are revealed in the absence of wind,...
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ftmit:oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/74253 2023-06-11T04:07:36+02:00 Two Configurations of the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current in Summer Von Appen, Wilken-Jon Pickart, Robert S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Von Appen, Wilken-Jon 2011-02 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74253 en_US eng American Meteorological Society http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1175/jpo-d-11-026.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography 0022-3670 1520-0485 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74253 von Appen, Wilken-Jon, and Robert S. Pickart. “Two Configurations of the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current in Summer.” Journal of Physical Oceanography 42.3 (2012): 329–351. © 2012 American Meteorological Society Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. AMS Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2011 ftmit 2023-05-29T08:36:16Z Data from a closely spaced array of moorings situated across the Beaufort Sea shelfbreak at 152°W are used to study the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current, with emphasis on its configuration during the summer season. Two dynamically distinct states of the current are revealed in the absence of wind, with each lasting approximately one month. The first is a surface-intensified shelfbreak jet transporting warm and buoyant Alaskan Coastal Water in late summer. This is the eastward continuation of the Alaskan Coastal Current. It is both baroclinically and barotropically unstable and hence capable of forming the surface-intensified warm-core eddies observed in the southern Beaufort Sea. The second configuration, present during early summer, is a bottom-intensified shelfbreak current advecting weakly stratified Chukchi Summer Water. It is baroclinically unstable and likely forms the middepth warm-core eddies present in the interior basin. The mesoscale instabilities extract energy from the mean flow such that the surface-intensified jet should spin down over an e-folding distance of 300 km beyond the array site, whereas the bottom-intensified configuration should decay within 150 km. This implies that Pacific Summer Water does not extend far into the Canadian Beaufort Sea as a well-defined shelfbreak current. In contrast, the Pacific Winter Water configuration of the shelfbreak jet is estimated to decay over a much greater distance of approximately 1400 km, implying that it should reach the first entrance to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OCE-0726640) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OPP-0731928) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OPP-0713250) Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Archipelago Arctic Beaufort Sea Canadian Arctic Archipelago Chukchi DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Arctic Canadian Arctic Archipelago Pacific |
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Open Polar |
collection |
DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftmit |
language |
English |
description |
Data from a closely spaced array of moorings situated across the Beaufort Sea shelfbreak at 152°W are used to study the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current, with emphasis on its configuration during the summer season. Two dynamically distinct states of the current are revealed in the absence of wind, with each lasting approximately one month. The first is a surface-intensified shelfbreak jet transporting warm and buoyant Alaskan Coastal Water in late summer. This is the eastward continuation of the Alaskan Coastal Current. It is both baroclinically and barotropically unstable and hence capable of forming the surface-intensified warm-core eddies observed in the southern Beaufort Sea. The second configuration, present during early summer, is a bottom-intensified shelfbreak current advecting weakly stratified Chukchi Summer Water. It is baroclinically unstable and likely forms the middepth warm-core eddies present in the interior basin. The mesoscale instabilities extract energy from the mean flow such that the surface-intensified jet should spin down over an e-folding distance of 300 km beyond the array site, whereas the bottom-intensified configuration should decay within 150 km. This implies that Pacific Summer Water does not extend far into the Canadian Beaufort Sea as a well-defined shelfbreak current. In contrast, the Pacific Winter Water configuration of the shelfbreak jet is estimated to decay over a much greater distance of approximately 1400 km, implying that it should reach the first entrance to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OCE-0726640) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OPP-0731928) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OPP-0713250) |
author2 |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Von Appen, Wilken-Jon |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Von Appen, Wilken-Jon Pickart, Robert S. |
spellingShingle |
Von Appen, Wilken-Jon Pickart, Robert S. Two Configurations of the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current in Summer |
author_facet |
Von Appen, Wilken-Jon Pickart, Robert S. |
author_sort |
Von Appen, Wilken-Jon |
title |
Two Configurations of the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current in Summer |
title_short |
Two Configurations of the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current in Summer |
title_full |
Two Configurations of the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current in Summer |
title_fullStr |
Two Configurations of the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current in Summer |
title_full_unstemmed |
Two Configurations of the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current in Summer |
title_sort |
two configurations of the western arctic shelfbreak current in summer |
publisher |
American Meteorological Society |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74253 |
geographic |
Arctic Canadian Arctic Archipelago Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canadian Arctic Archipelago Pacific |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Archipelago Arctic Beaufort Sea Canadian Arctic Archipelago Chukchi |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Archipelago Arctic Beaufort Sea Canadian Arctic Archipelago Chukchi |
op_source |
AMS |
op_relation |
http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1175/jpo-d-11-026.1 Journal of Physical Oceanography 0022-3670 1520-0485 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74253 von Appen, Wilken-Jon, and Robert S. Pickart. “Two Configurations of the Western Arctic Shelfbreak Current in Summer.” Journal of Physical Oceanography 42.3 (2012): 329–351. © 2012 American Meteorological Society |
op_rights |
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. |
_version_ |
1768380777241772032 |