Little Diomede Island, Bering Strait

BERING STRAITTHROUGHFLOW

ARC-0528632

Comparison of Water Properties and Flows in the U.S. and Russian Channels of the Bering Strait - 2005 to 2006 Rebecca Woodgate, University of Washington

ARC-0632154

The Pacific Gateway to the Arctic- Quantifying and Understanding Bering Strait Oceanic Fluxes- Rebecca Woodgate (University of Washington),- Tom Weingartner (Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks), - Terry Whitledge (Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks), - Ron Lindsay (University of Washington)

in collaboration with - NOAA RUSALCA (Russian-American Long Term Census of the Arctic) program, (Kathy Crane, and John Calder)- Russian PIs at Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), especially the team of Igor Lavrenov- Knut Aagaard (UW). Ed Carmack (IOS, Canada) .... and others ..

With thanks to Jim Johnson, Seth Danielson, Dave Leech, Mike Schmidt, and crews of the Alpha Helix, the Laurier, and the Sever

Comparison of Water Properties and Flows in the U.S. and Russian Channels of the Bering Strait - 2005 to 2006

STATUS AND PROGRESS

Woodgate, Aagaard, Weingartner, 2007, FIRST STEPS IN CALIBRATING THE BERING STRAIT THROUGHFLOW: Preliminary study of how measurements at a proposed climate site (A3) compare to measurements within the two channels of the strait (A1 and A2), UW Technical Report, 20pp, /psc.apl.washington.edu/BeringStrait.html

85km wide, 50m deep, split US-Russia~ 0.8 Sv, large seasonal & interannual variation (TS)Important fluxes of heat, freshwater, nutrients

MODIS SST 26th Aug 04, courtesy NASA

1 year of moorings (A2, A3, A4) 2005-2006 = 3 years of concurrent US-Russian data(1990-1991, 2004-2005, 2005-2006)

Hypothesis: A3 is a “useful” proxy of total flow

Velocity – v good, just needs calibration

Temperature – fair, need to get mechanisms

Salinity – poor, need to get mechanisms

Transport – v good (r>0.97), just needs calibration

Freshwater – ditto, (r>0.94), but needs calibration

Heat – better than just T (r>0.93), but needs calibration

FW flux strongly f(volume)Heat flux mostly f(volume)

Moorings 1990 - present

The Pacific Gateway to the Arctic- Quantifying and Understanding Bering Strait Oceanic Fluxes

STATUS AND PROGRESS

AIMS:1) UNDERSTAND DYNAMICS2) QUANTIFY FLUXES heat, freshwater, nutrients,chlorophyll(WITH Alaskan Coastal Current and stratification)3) DESIGN MONITORING NETWORK(including remote data sources)

WORK:== 8 MOORINGS (2007-2009)- velocity profiling (ADCP)- upper layer T-S (ISCAT ice-avoidance sensors)- bottom pressure gauges- nitrate and biooptics sensors== ANNUAL CTD SECTIONS== SATELLITE SST and SSH

Your instrument

here!!!!

The Pacific Gateway to the ArcticCOORDINATION AND INTEGRATION

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/BeringStrait.html

The Pacific Gateway to the ArcticCOORDINATION AND INTEGRATION

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/BeringStrait.html

WITHOUT ACC/Stratification

The Pacific Gateway to the ArcticCOORDINATION AND INTEGRATION

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/BeringStrait.html

The Pacific Gateway to the ArcticCOORDINATION AND INTEGRATION

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/BeringStrait.html

WITHOUT ACC/StratificationCOMBINE WITH- SST- SSH- model results

INPUT FOR- model forcing and validation- local observational work- theory studies

The Pacific Gateway to the ArcticFUTURE DIRECTIONS AND 2008 PLANS

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/BeringStrait.html

FIELD WORKBering Strait mooring cruise - Leg 2 of RUSALCA 2008Russian Vessel “Lavrentiev” Nome to Nome~ August 15 – 25th 2008- mooring recoveries and redeployments- high resolution CTD sections

1) Understanding Physics

2) Quantifying Fluxes

3) Designing monitoring system