Meeting Documents

The origin and fate of Bering Strait throughflow

Abstract

Bering Strait is the only oceanic connection between the Pacific and Arctic-Atlantic Oceans. This small geographic opening carries a northward transport with an averaged strength of 1 Sv, which has been found to play an important role in Arctic freshwater budget, sea-ice retreat and formation, and the climatology and variability of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. In this work, we use a Lagrangian framework to study the origin and fate of Bering Strait transport. Lagrangian parcels are advected by flow fields of ECCO version 4, both backward and forward in time. Bering Strait transport originates as a component of the relatively fresh Antarctica Intermediate Water in the southeast Pacific, and parcels follow the wind-driven circulation in Pacific Ocean to approach Bering Strait. The cold and fresh end-member properties of Bering Strait transport are determined very close to the strait. Northward into the Arctic Ocean, parcels flow towards the north Atlantic either via shallow channels in Canadian Archipelago, or in the East Greenland Current. Parcels undergo deep water formation dominantly in the Labrador sea, sink to as deep as 2.5 km in the subpolar gyre, and flow southward mainly as a component of the North Atlantic Deep Water in the deep western boundary current of the South Atlantic Ocean.View Document (AGU) »