Ocean circulation and exchanges through the Bering Sea 1979-2001 model results

Abstract

A model has been developed and run with sufficiently high resolution (~9 km and 45 levels) and a large enough spatial domain to allow for realistic representation of flow through the narrow and shallow straits in the Bering Sea region. This is potentially important for quantification of long-term mean and time-dependent ocean circulation, and water mass and property exchanges between the Pacific and Arctic oceans. The mean modeled circulation in the Bering Sea is found to be in good agreement with the limited observational data. The Bering Sea Basin, Bering Slope Current, and straits on the northern shelf are identified as highly energetic regions based on eddy kinetic energy fields. Some high biological productivity regions of the northern Bering Sea identified in observational studies are coincident with regions of persistently high energy (up to 2600 cm2 s-2 at mid-depth) throughout the annual cycle. Over a twentythree year interval (1979-2001), mean transport through Bering Strait is estimated to be 0.65 Sv. Comparison of model results with published observations indicates that ocean circulation is not only variable at seasonal to interdecadal scales, but it is also responsive to short-term atmospheric forcing. Comparison with observations of nearbottom salinity indicates that the model is reasonably representing the major water mass properties. The long-term model results for the Bering Sea provide important insights into the ocean circulation and fluxes and they are a useful frame of reference for limited observations that are short-term and/or cover only a small geographic region.