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The Dominant Role of the East Siberian Sea in Driving the Oceanic Flow Through the Bering Strait—Conclusions From GRACE Ocean Mass Satellite Data and In Situ Mooring Observations Between 2002 and 2016
Author(s) -
PeraltaFerriz Cecilia,
Woodgate Rebecca A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl075179
Subject(s) - oceanography , geology , arctic , throughflow , climatology , arctic dipole anomaly , mooring , arctic ice pack , drift ice , soil science
It is typically stated that the Pacific‐to‐Arctic oceanic flow through the Bering Strait (important for Arctic heat, freshwater, and nutrient budgets) is driven by local wind and a (poorly defined) far‐field “pressure head” forcing, related to sea surface height differences between the Pacific and the Arctic. Using monthly, Arctic‐wide, ocean bottom pressure satellite data and in situ mooring data from the Bering Strait from 2002 to 2016, we discover the spatial structure of this pressure head forcing, finding that the Bering Strait throughflow variability is dominantly driven from the Arctic, specifically by sea level change in the East Siberian Sea (ESS), in turn related to westward winds along the Arctic coasts. In the (comparatively calm) summer, this explains approximately two thirds of the Bering Strait variability. In winter, local wind variability dominates the total flow, but the pressure head term, while still correlated with the ESS‐dominated sea level pattern, is now more strongly related to Bering Sea Shelf sea level variability.