Satellite-Tracked Drifter Measurements in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.

摘要

In 2012 and 2013 we deployed a total of 110 drifters near Icy Cape, Wainwright and Point Lay with the help of several hunters. The drifters behaved differently between 2012 and 2013 because of varying wind and ocean current conditions. In 2012 drifters moved north and east towards Barrow Canyon and then east towards the Beaufort Sea shelf/slope or northwest towards the Chukchi Sea slope. In 2013 drifter trajectory was predominantly westward and south drifting around Herald Shoal and finally beaching along the Siberian coast. The information from the NSB-DWM nearshore drifters, and the offshore drifters deployed by UAF near the Hanna Shoal area, has already provided us with an improved understanding of the movements of surface ocean water.