We used a 5 year time series of transport, temperature, and salinity from moorings at the head of Barrow Canyon to describe seasonal variations and construct a 37 year transport hindcast. The latter was developed from summer/winter regressions of transport against Bering‐Chukchi winds. Seasonally, the regressions differ due to baroclinicity, stratification, spatial, and seasonal variations in winds and/or the surface drag coefficients. The climatological annual cycle consists of summer downcanyon (positive and toward the Arctic Ocean) transport of ∼0.45 Sv of warm, freshwaters; fall (October–December) upcanyon transport of ∼−0.1 Sv of cooler, saltier waters; and negligible net winter (January–April) mass transport when shelf waters are saline and near‐freezing. Fall upcanyon transports may modulate shelf freezeup, and negligible winter transports could influence winter water properties. Transport variability is largest in fall and winter. Daily transport probability density functions are negatively skewed in all seasons and seasonal variations in kurtosis are a function of transport event durations. The latter may have consequences for shelf‐basin exchanges. The climatology implies that the Chukchi shelf circulation reorganizes annually: in summer ∼40% of the summer Bering Strait inflow leaves the shelf via Barrow Canyon, but from fall through winter all of it exits via the western Chukchi or Central Channel. We estimate a mean transport of ∼0.2 Sv; ∼50% less than estimates at the mouth of the canyon. Transport discrepancies may be due to inflows from the Beaufort shelf and the Chukchi shelfbreak, with the latter entering the western side of the canyon.

The evolution of the near-inertial internal wavefield from ice-free summertime conditions to ice-covered wintertime conditions is examined using data from a yearlong deployment of six moorings on the Beaufort continental slope from August 2008 to August 2009. When ice is absent, from July to October, energy is efficiently transferred from the atmosphere to the ocean, generating near-inertial internal waves. When ice is present, from November to June, storms also cause near-inertial oscillations in the ice and mixed layer, but kinetic energy is weaker and oscillations are quickly damped. Damping is dependent on ice pack strength and morphology. Decay scales are longer in early winter (November–January) when the new ice pack is weaker and more mobile, decreasing in late winter (February–June) when the ice pack is stronger and more rigid. Efficiency is also reduced, as comparisons of atmospheric energy available for internal wave generation to mixed layer kinetic energies indicate that a smaller percentage of atmospheric energy is transferred to near-inertial motions when ice concentrations are >90%. However, large kinetic energies and shears are observed during an event on 16 December and spectral energy is elevated above Garrett–Munk levels, coinciding with the largest energy flux predicted during the deployment. A significant amount of near-inertial energy is episodically transferred to the internal wave band from the atmosphere even when the ocean is ice covered; however, damping by ice and less efficient energy transfer still leads to low Arctic internal wave energy in the near-inertial band. Increased kinetic energy below 300 m when ice is forming suggests some events may generate internal waves that radiate into the Arctic Ocean interior.

We analyzed velocity and hydrographic data from 23 moorings in the northeast Chukchi Sea from 2011 to 2014. In most years the eastern side of Hanna Shoal was strongly stratified year‐round, while weakly stratified regions prevailed on the shelf south and west of the Shoal. Stratification differences cause differential vertical mixing rates, which in conjunction with advection of different bottom water properties resulted in seasonally varying along‐isobath density gradients. In agreement with numerical models, we find that bottom waters flow anticyclonically around the Shoal. Whereas most of the shelf responded barotropically to wind‐forcing, there was a strong baroclinic component to the flow field northeast of Hanna Shoal, resulting in no net vertically integrated transport on average. In contrast there is a net eastward transport from west of the Shoal, which implies convergence north of the Shoal. Convergence and along‐isobath density gradients may foster cross‐shelf exchange north of Hanna Shoal. Modal analyses indicate that the shelf south of the Shoal and Barrow Canyon responded coherently to local and remote winds, whereas the wind‐current response around Hanna Shoal was less coherent. Barotropic topographic waves, of ~3‐day period, were generated episodically northeast of the Shoal and propagate clockwise around Hanna Shoal, but are blocked from entering Barrow Canyon and are possibly scattered by the horizontally sheared flow and converging isobaths on the western side of the Shoal. Analysis of water properties on the western side of Hanna Shoal suggests that these include contributions from the western and southern portions of the Chukchi Sea.