Spatial and Temporal Characteristics of the Wind Forcing of the Bering Sea

The Pacific Arctic Region

“…Observed estimates of the net volume transport through Kamchatka Strait are southward and range from ~6 to 15 Sv (Ohtani 1970 ;Verkhunov and Tkachenko 1992 ;Stabeno and Reed 1992 ). Previous modeling work by Overland et al ( 1994 ) realized general circulation features (e.g., complex cyclonic fl ow in the Bering Sea basin) similar to observations. Panteleev et al ( 2006 ) fulfi lled variational analysis of the summer climatological circulation in the major part of the Bering Sea.…”

“…Goosse et al 1997 ;Xie et al 2000 ) regional models of this region have often used closed or fi xed (prescribed) boundary conditions in the Bering Sea and/or North Pacifi c (Overland et al 1994 ;Hurlburt et al 1996 ;Stabeno and Hermann 1996 ;Okkonen et al 2001 ;Hermann et al 2002 ;Ladd and Thompson 2002 ). Ocean general circulation models (OGCMs) have demonstrated a rather limited ability to realistically represent circulation and inter-basin exchanges of water mass and properties between the North Pacifi c and the Bering Sea/Arctic Ocean.…”

A regional tidal/subtidal circulation model of the southeastern Bering Sea: development, sensitivity analyses and hindcasting

“…This method has been used successfully, and described in some detail, in Hermann and Stabeno (1996). (Bond et al, 1994). Heat flux was computed as the sum of sensible heat flux, latent heat flux, longwave radiation, and shortwave radiation.…”

Altimeter observations of the Bering Slope Current eddy field

“…The cross-isobath distribution of eddy field energy showed that a range of wave periods bracketing the 4-month peak period (70-150 days) occuned preferentially over the middle and upper continental slope and that near-annual period variability typically occurred over the lower continental slope. An earlier investigation of GEOSAT altimeter measurements of the 1987 spring/summer eddy field in the BSC region [Okkonen, 1993] Because wind forcing (wind stress and wind stress curl) in the Bering Sea has its principal spectral peak at the annual period [Bond et al, 1994], it is reasonable to expect that the mesoscale eddy field and its observed strong seasonal modulation occur in response to this forcing. Analytical frameworks fom which BSC eddy field variability might initially be explored are provided by Vetohis [1956], who addresses geostrophic motions as an oceanic response to a transient applied wind stress, Longuet-Higgins [1965], who addresses long-period response to stationary and moving wind systems, and Philander and Yoon [1982], who discuss relationships between periodic wind forcing and the timescales and space scales of eastern boundary current variability.…”