Relations between salinity in the northwestern Bering Sea, the Bering Strait throughflow and sea surface height in the Arctic Ocean

Kawai, Yoshimi; Osafune, Satoshi; Masuda, Shuhei; Komuro, Yuzo

doi:10.1007/s10872-017-0453-x

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…More recently, using a conceptual model, Danielson et al (2014) correlated wind, pressure, and sea surface height north and south of the strait with the throughflow and suggested that the Bering shelf circulation is highly controlled by basin-scale wind patterns, particularly the Aleutian Low in the Bering Sea/Gulf of Alaska, with additional contributions from the Beaufort 10.1029/2020JC016213 and Siberian Highs and modifications from coastal shelf waves. Kawai et al (2018) also find relationships between model sea surface heights in the northeast Bering Sea and the southwest Chukchi Sea with the flow through the Bering Strait. Yet more recent work (Peralta-Ferriz & Woodgate, 2017) finds high correlations (correlation coefficient ∼ 0.6) between monthly flow variability and a specific pattern of ocean bottom pressure (OBP), namely, a pattern dominated by low OBP in the East Siberian Sea (assisted in winter by high OBP over the Bering Sea Shelf).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Elucidating large-scale atmospheric controls on Bering Strait throughflow variability using a data-constrained ocean model and its adjoint

Nguyen

Woodgate

Heimbach

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A regional data-constrained coupled ocean-sea ice general circulation model and its adjoint are used to investigate mechanisms controlling the volume transport variability through Bering Strait during 2002 to 2013. Comprehensive time-resolved sensitivity maps of Bering Strait transport to atmospheric forcing can be accurately computed with the adjoint along the forward model trajectory to identify spatial and temporal scales most relevant to the strait's transport variability. The simulated Bering Strait transport anomaly is found to be controlled primarily by the wind stress on short time scales of order 1 month. Spatial decomposition indicates that on monthly time scales winds over the Bering and the combined Chukchi and East Siberian Seas are the most significant drivers. Continental shelf waves and coastally trapped waves are suggested as the dominant mechanisms for propagating information from the far field to the strait. In years with transport extrema, eastward wind stress anomalies in the Arctic sector are found to be the dominant control, with correlation coefficient of 0.94. This implies that atmospheric variability over the Arctic plays a substantial role in determining Bering Strait flow variability. The near-linear response of the transport anomaly to wind stress allows for predictive skill at interannual time scales, thus potentially enabling skillful prediction of changes at this important Pacific-Arctic gateway, provided that accurate measurements of surface winds in the Arctic can be obtained. The novelty of this work is the use of space and time-resolved adjoint-based sensitivity maps, which enable detailed dynamical, that is, causal attribution of the impacts of different forcings.Plain Language Summary An ocean circulation model, that was adjusted to match observations, is used to investigate what are the important factors controlling the oceanic flow of water through the Bering Strait. Results show that the flow through the strait is related to surface atmospheric winds over the Bering Sea Shelf (south of the strait) and the near coastal regions of the Arctic Ocean (north of the strait). In the model, knowledge of these winds over the preceding 1 month allows us to reconstruct most of the changes in the flow through the strait. A somewhat surprising result is that winds in the Arctic have a greater influence on the amount of water flowing through the Bering Strait than winds over any region of the Pacific Ocean or the Bering Sea. The connection between the winds and the flow through the strait is strong enough that interannual changes in the winds may be used to predict interannual change in the flow. This predictive skill opens up the prospect for an improved understanding of the causes and mechanisms of flow changes at this important Pacific-Arctic gateway, provided that accurate measurements of surface winds over the Arctic can be obtained.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Elucidating large-scale atmospheric controls on Bering Strait throughflow variability using a data-constrained ocean model and its adjoint

Nguyen

Woodgate

Heimbach

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Arctic's surface waters are influenced by complex atmospheric and oceanic interactions, of which the cryosphere plays an important role. Differences in SST, SSS, and SIC provide valuable insight into trends of Arctic FW flux and its connection to lower latitudes [56] (Figure 2). The warm inflow of water in the Atlantic region restricts the extent of sea ice formation as seen in Figure 2a,b.…”

Section: Arctic's Mean State (2016-2018)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface Freshwater Fluxes in the Arctic and Subarctic Seas during Contrasting Years of High and Low Summer Sea Ice Extent

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Freshwater (FW) flux between the Arctic Ocean and adjacent waterways, predominantly driven by wind and oceanic currents, influences halocline stability and annual sea ice variability which further impacts global circulation and climate. The Arctic recently experienced anomalous years of high and low sea ice extent in the summers of 2013/2014 and 2012/2016, respectively. Here we investigate the interannual variability of oceanic surface FW flux in relation to spatial and temporal variability in sea ice concentration (SIC), sea surface salinity (SSS), and sea surface temperature (SST), focusing on years with summer sea–ice extremes. Our analysis between 2010–2018 illustrate high parameter variability, especially within the Laptev, Kara, and Barents seas, as well as an overall decreasing trend of FW flux through the Fram Strait. We find that in 2012, a maximum average FW flux of 0.32 × 103 ms−1 in October passed over a large portion of the Northeast Atlantic Ocean at 53°N. This study highlights recent changes in the Arctic and Subarctic Seas and the importance of continued monitoring of key variables through remote sensing to understand the dynamics behind these ongoing changes. Observations of FW fluxes through major Arctic routes will be increasingly important as the polar regions become more susceptible to warming, with major impacts on global climate.

show abstract

“…As the wintertime oceanic mixed layer reaches the bottom in the shallow continental shelf region (Kawai et al, 2018), the mixed layer in the shelf region is cooled more than that in the deep southwestern basin. In the Bering Sea, the bottom topography regulates the upper ocean temperature and the low-level atmosphere, as Xie et al (2002) indicated for the Yellow and East China Seas.…”

Section: Effect On Shortwave Radiation and Precipitation Into The Oceanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-Level Atmospheric Responses to the Sea Surface Temperature Fronts in the Chukchi and Bering Seas

Kawai

2021

Front. Mar. Sci.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Atmospheric responses to ocean surface temperature (ST) fronts related to western boundary currents have been extensively analyzed over the last two decades. However, the organized near-surface response to ST, which is defined as the temperature of open water and sea ice, excluding land surface, at higher latitudes where sea ice exists has been rarely investigated due to the difficulties of observations. Here, 32 years of high-resolution atmospheric reanalysis data are analyzed to determine the atmospheric responses to ST fronts in the Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea. In the Chukchi Sea, the convergence of 10-m-high wind increases in October and November, when the horizontal gradient and Laplacian of ST become noticeable. On the other hand, an ST contrast between the continental shelf and the southwestern deep basin develops in winter in the Bering Sea. In both seas, the spatial distribution of surface wind convergence and the Laplacians of ST and sea level pressure agree well with each other, demonstrating the pressure adjustment mechanism. The vertical mixing mechanism is also confirmed in both seas. Ascending motion and diabatic heating develop over the Chukchi Sea in late autumn, but are confined to the lower troposphere. Turbulent heat fluxes at the surface become especially large in this season, resulting in an increase of diabatic heating and low-level clouds. Low-level clouds and downward shortwave radiation exhibit contrasting behavior across the shelf break in the Bering Sea that corresponds to the ST distribution, which is regulated by the bottom topography.

show abstract

Relations between salinity in the northwestern Bering Sea, the Bering Strait throughflow and sea surface height in the Arctic Ocean

Cited by 8 publications

References 28 publications

Elucidating large-scale atmospheric controls on Bering Strait throughflow variability using a data-constrained ocean model and its adjoint

Elucidating large-scale atmospheric controls on Bering Strait throughflow variability using a data-constrained ocean model and its adjoint

Surface Freshwater Fluxes in the Arctic and Subarctic Seas during Contrasting Years of High and Low Summer Sea Ice Extent

Low-Level Atmospheric Responses to the Sea Surface Temperature Fronts in the Chukchi and Bering Seas

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About