The Atlantic Water boundary current in the Chukchi Borderland and Southern Canada Basin

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
• Main Authors: Li, Jianqiang, Pickart, Robert S., Lin, Peigen, Bahr, Frank B., Arrigo, Kevin R., Juranek, Laurie W., Yang, Xiao‐Yi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2020
• Subjects: Beaufort Shelf; Canada; Chukchi Borderland; canada basin; Chukchi; Fram Strait
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1912/26426

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2020. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 125(8), (2020): e2020JC016197, doi:10.1029/2020JC016197. Synoptic shipboard measurements, together with historical hydrographic data and satellite data, are used to elucidate the detailed structure of the Atlantic Water (AW) boundary current system in the southern Canada Basin and its connection to the upstream source of AW in the Chukchi Borderland. Nine high‐resolution occupations of a transect extending from the Beaufort shelf to the deep basin near 152°W, taken between 2003 and 2018, reveal that there are two branches of the AW boundary current that flow beneath and counter to the Beaufort Gyre. Each branch corresponds to a warm temperature core and transports comparable amounts of Fram Strait Branch Water between roughly 200–700 m depth, although they are characterized by a different temperature/salinity (T/S) structure. The mean volume flux of the combined branches is 0.87 ± 0.13 Sv. Using the historical hydrographic data, the two branches are tracked upstream by their temperature cores and T/S signatures. This sheds new light on how the AW negotiates the Chukchi Borderland and why two branches emerge from this region. Lastly, the propagation of warm temperature anomalies through the region is quantified and shown to be consistent with the deduced circulation scheme. This work was funded by the following sources: National Science Foundation Grants PLR‐1504333, OPP‐1733564, and OPP‐1504394; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Grant NA14OAR4320158; and National Aeronautics and Space Administration Grant NNX10AF42G. 2021-01-27