Frontal structures associated with coastal upwelling and ice‐edge subduction events in southern Beaufort Sea during the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study

Abstract

AbstractThe near‐surface temperature structure in the southeastern Beaufort Sea is shown to have been largely dependent on frontal dynamics in spring 2004, which may be typical for the region. Easterly wind events generated coastal upwelling along the Cap Bathurst peninsula; a recurring event in that area. Further west, a large mesoscale anticyclone simultaneously developed and subsequently controlled the sea‐surface circulation in the central Amundsen Gulf. Sharp temperature and density fronts were created at the surface at both eastern and western ends of the domain. Sampling north of Cape Bathurst and Cape Parry showed evidence of frontal intensification. Frontal features were detected near the 50–200 m isobaths, at the mouth of the gulf, where density‐compensated near‐surface intrusions driven by agesotrophic vertical circulation were identified. These warm water tongues intruded into the outcropping isopycnal layers, which dipped down between 5 and 25 m over the Mackenzie Shelf. They then crossed the density surfaces with an inverse slope consistent with N/f as predicted for quasi‐geostrophic flows. The front event ended prior to the breakup of the landfast‐ice bridge in late June with sea‐surface temperature undergoing quick and widespread changes throughout the Amundsen Gulf.