Anomalous circulation in the Pacific sector of the Arctic Ocean in July-December 2008

- PSAO circulation in July-December 2008 and during previous periods was reconstructed through 4Dvar data assimilation.
- Circulation in 2008 agrees well with non-assimilated velocity observations and differs significantly from previous years.
- There was intensive reversal flow and negative SSH anomalies along the Eurasian shelf break.
- Reversal flow and negative SSH can be responsible for amplification of the Bering Strait flow.
- Reversal flow and negative SSH can be responsible for the increase of freshwater transport into the deep part of the PSAO.

Variability of the mean summer-fall ocean state in the Pacific Sector of the Arctic Ocean (PSAO) is studied using a dynamically constrained synthesis (4Dvar) of historical in situ observations collected during 1972 to 2008. Specifically, the oceanic response to the cyclonic (1989-1996) and anticyclonic (1972-1978, 1997-2006) phases of the Arctic Ocean Oscillation (AOO) is assessed for the purpose of quantitatively comparing the 2008 circulation pattern that followed the 2007 ice cover minimum.It is shown that the PSAO circulation during July-December of 2008 was characterized by a pronounced negative Sea Surface Height (SSH) anomaly along the Eurasian shelf break, which caused a significant decline of the transport in the Atlantic Water (AW) inflow region into the PSAO and increased the sea level difference between the Bering and Chukchi Seas. This anomaly could be one of the reasons for the observed amplification of the Bering Strait transport carrying fresh Pacific Waters into the PSAO. Largrangian analysis of the optimized solution suggests that the freshwater (FW) accumulation in the Beaufort Gyre has a negligible contribution from the East Siberian Sea and is likely caused by the enhanced FW export from the region north of the Canadian Archipelago/Greenland.The inverse modeling results are confirmed by validation against independent altimetry observations and in situ velocity data from NABOS moorings. It is also shown that presented results are in significantly better agreement with the data than the output of the PIOMAS model run utilized as a first guess solution for the 4dVar analysis.