Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 44, Issue 22, Pages 11472-11481Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2017GL075179
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Funding
- NASA [NNX16AF18G]
- [NSF-PLR-1304052]
- NASA [905829, NNX16AF18G] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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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.
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