Increases in the Pacific inflow to the Arctic from 1990 to 2015, and insights into seasonal trends and driving mechanisms from year-round Bering Strait mooring data

Woodgate, Rebecca A.

doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2017.12.007

Cited by 347 publications

(527 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The mean transport through the Bering Strait from 2000 to 2015, as derived from the A3 mooring with correction for instrument depth and data dropout but without the correction for the Alaskan Coastal Current, is 1.0 ± 0.1 Sv (Woodgate, ; Woodgate et al, ). This agrees with the HiGEM1.1 Bering Strait transport of 1.2 ± 0.2 Sv and the HadGEM3 transport 1.1 ± 0.2 Sv.…”

Section: Results: Coupled Climate Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interconnectivity Between Volume Transports Through Arctic Straits

et al. 2018

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Arctic heat and freshwater budgets are highly sensitive to volume transports through the Arctic‐Subarctic straits. Here we study the interconnectivity of volume transports through Arctic straits in three models; two coupled global climate models, one with a third‐degree horizontal ocean resolution (High Resolution Global Environmental Model version 1.1 [HiGEM1.1]) and one with a twelfth‐degree horizontal ocean resolution (Hadley Centre Global Environment Model 3 [HadGEM3]), and one ocean‐only model with an idealized polar basin (tenth‐degree horizontal resolution). The two global climate models indicate that there is a strong anticorrelation between the Bering Strait throughflow and the transport through the Nordic Seas, a second strong anticorrelation between the transport through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the Nordic Seas transport, and a third strong anticorrelation is found between the Fram Strait and the Barents Sea throughflows. We find that part of the strait correlations is due to the strait transports being coincidentally driven by large‐scale atmospheric forcing patterns. However, there is also a role for fast wave adjustments of some straits flows to perturbations in other straits since atmospheric forcing of individual strait flows alone cannot lead to near mass balance fortuitously every year. Idealized experiments with an ocean model (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean version 3.6) that investigate such causal strait relations suggest that perturbations in the Bering Strait are compensated preferentially in the Fram Strait due to the narrowness of the western Arctic shelf and the deeper depth of the Fram Strait.

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Section: Results: Coupled Climate Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interconnectivity Between Volume Transports Through Arctic Straits

et al. 2018

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“…The effect of warmer Atlantic waters at the shelf edge are observed as far as the Laptev Sea shelf (Janout et al, ) and the Chuckhi Sea shelf (Ladd et al, ). The Chukchi shelf bottom waters are influenced by waters bringing heat into the Arctic Ocean through the Bering Strait (Woodgate, ). By ignoring isostasy, regions of glacio‐isostatic rebound may be classified as subaerial, due to their higher modern elevation, during periods of glaciation and deglaciation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Submarine Permafrost Map in the Arctic Modeled Using 1‐D Transient Heat Flux (SuPerMAP)

et al. 2019

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Offshore permafrost plays a role in the global climate system, but observations of permafrost thickness, state, and composition are limited to specific regions. The current global permafrost map shows potential offshore permafrost distribution based on bathymetry and global sea level rise. As a first‐order estimate, we employ a heat transfer model to calculate the subsurface temperature field. Our model uses dynamic upper boundary conditions that synthesize Earth System Model air temperature, ice mass distribution and thickness, and global sea level reconstruction and applies globally distributed geothermal heat flux as a lower boundary condition. Sea level reconstruction accounts for differences between marine and terrestrial sedimentation history. Sediment composition and pore water salinity are integrated in the model. Model runs for 450 ka for cross‐shelf transects were used to initialize the model for circumarctic modeling for the past 50 ka. Preindustrial submarine permafrost (i.e., cryotic sediment), modeled at 12.5‐km spatial resolution, lies beneath almost 2.5 ×106km2 of the Arctic shelf. Our simple modeling approach results in estimates of distribution of cryotic sediment that are similar to the current global map and recent seismically delineated permafrost distributions for the Beaufort and Kara seas, suggesting that sea level is a first‐order determinant for submarine permafrost distribution. Ice content and sediment thermal conductivity are also important for determining rates of permafrost thickness change. The model provides a consistent circumarctic approach to map submarine permafrost and to estimate the dynamics of permafrost in the past.

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“…However, in general, the flow through Bering Strait is to the north, into the Arctic Ocean, driven by the meridional sea level gradient (Coachman & Aagaard, ; Aagaard et al, ). This inflow has been observed since 1990 by a year‐round mooring array (Woodgate, ). Historical measurements pointed to a mean inflow of 0.8 Sv (Woodgate & Aagaard, ; Woodgate et al, , ), although more recent observations show a long‐term increase of 0.01 Sv/year, leading to an observed maximum of 1.2 Sv in 2014 (Woodgate, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This inflow has been observed since 1990 by a year‐round mooring array (Woodgate, ). Historical measurements pointed to a mean inflow of 0.8 Sv (Woodgate & Aagaard, ; Woodgate et al, , ), although more recent observations show a long‐term increase of 0.01 Sv/year, leading to an observed maximum of 1.2 Sv in 2014 (Woodgate, ). These same observations also indicate significant seasonal and interannual variability (Woodgate, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pacific Water Pathway in the Arctic Ocean and Beaufort Gyre in Two Simulations With Different Horizontal Resolutions

Myers

2019

JGR Oceans

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A set of numerical simulations (with horizontal resolutions of 1/4° and 1/12°) is conducted to study the Pacific Water pathway in the Arctic Ocean and the freshwater content in Beaufort Gyre. Passive tracer tags the Pacific Water entering through Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean and further reveals its circulation routes and spatial distribution. Both the 1/4° and 1/12° simulations show Pacific Water mainly follows the Transpolar Drift over the integration period of 2002–2016, with a limited amount being able to flow eastward along the Alaskan coast to enter the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. However, the circulation pattern of Pacific Water within the Beaufort Gyre is quite different with a stronger and tighter anticyclonic circulation in the 1/12° simulation corresponding to the difference in freshwater content. The 1/12° simulation successfully reproduces the overall recent increasing trend in the freshwater content in the Beaufort Gyre, while the 1/4° simulation fails to maintain the high freshwater content state after 2007. Budget analysis suggests that this difference in Beaufort Gyre freshwater storage is mainly caused by lateral advection. The lateral freshwater flux is decomposed into two components due to the slow‐varying circulation and mesoscale eddies. The difference in the capability to resolve eddies in the two simulations causes the difference in the temporal evolution of both components of the lateral flux.

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Increases in the Pacific inflow to the Arctic from 1990 to 2015, and insights into seasonal trends and driving mechanisms from year-round Bering Strait mooring data

Cited by 347 publications

References 55 publications

Interconnectivity Between Volume Transports Through Arctic Straits

Interconnectivity Between Volume Transports Through Arctic Straits

Submarine Permafrost Map in the Arctic Modeled Using 1‐D Transient Heat Flux (SuPerMAP)

Pacific Water Pathway in the Arctic Ocean and Beaufort Gyre in Two Simulations With Different Horizontal Resolutions

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