Reconstruction of Bering Strait volume transport suggesting the contribution of Bering Sea continental shelf to the pressure head forcing

• Published in: Polar Science
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Bering strait throughflow; Dynamic ocean topography; Pressure head forcing; Bering Sea; Bering Strait; Pacific; East Siberian Sea; aleutian low; Polar Science
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=16411; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00016289/

The author reconstructed in-situ volume transport (VT) through the Bering Strait using the NNW wind component, the gradient of dynamic ocean topography (DOT) across the strait and DOT in the East Siberian Sea (RMSE = 0.2 Sv). The difference between in-situ VT and reconstructed VT (diffVT) was correlated with DOT in the northern Bering Sea shelf (DOTBER) during fall and winter. DOTBER was then introduced to the multiple linear regression model. The reconstructed VT shows the improved accuracy of reconstruction (RMSE = 0.16). Also, the author found DOTBER contributes to constant northward transport rather than the variability of in-situ VT. Those suggest that DOTBER represents a part of the pressure head forcing. EOF 1st mode of DOT (DOT-EOF1) was correlated with diffVT during fall season. SVD analysis revealed EOF 2nd mode of DOT is related to the Aleutian Low pressure pattern, but DOT-EOF1 is not related to the atmospheric circulation. The author found that positive correlation (R = 0.46) between DOT-EOF1 and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Those suggest that the variability of DOT in the Bering Sea shelf related to the pressure head forcing is considered to be resulted from steric variability.