Time Dependent Flow of Atlantic Water on the Continental Slope of the Beaufort Sea Based on Moorings

Abstract

Warm, salty Atlantic Water (AW) is a ubiquitous feature of the middepth Arctic Ocean. It enters the Arctic through the eastern side of Fram Strait and via the Barents Sea, and circulates cyclonically through the different basins as a boundary current before exiting the western side of Fram Strait (e.g., Aksenov et al., 2011). During its long transit the water is cooled, freshened and densified. After re-entering the Nordic Seas, the modified water flows southward with the East Greenland Current and participates in the dense overflow through Denmark Strait (Mauritzen, 1996). Hence, the transformation of AW in the Arctic can be thought of as the northern headwaters of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, and thus represents an important component of our global climate system. The AW strongly influences the water column structure throughout the Arctic, contributing to the maintenance of the halocline. The layer also contains a vast amount of heat that has been shown to influence ice melt in the Eurasian Basin (Polyakov et al., 2017) and along the southern margin of the Canada Basin (Ladd et al., 2016).To first order, the flow of AW is steered by bathymetry (e.g., Aksenov et al., 2011;Rudels et al., 1994; see Figure 1a). The water emanating from Fram Strait splits into three different branches in the northern part

Upwelling of Atlantic Water in Barrow Canyon, Chukchi Sea

“…(2020). This is likely the signature of the rebound jet induced by the combined effect of the fast barotropic adjustment and slow baroclinic adjustment (Li et al., 2021; Lin, Pickart, Moore, et al., 2019; Pickart et al., 2011).…”