Observed features of temperature, salinity and current in central Chukchi Sea during the summer of 2012

During the summer of 2012, the fifth CHINARE Arctic Expedition was carried out, and a submersible mooring system was deployed in M5 station located at (69°30.155'N,169°00.654'W) and recovered 50d later. A set of temperature, salinity and current profile records was acquired. The characteristics of these observations are analyzed in this paper. Some main results are achieved as below. (1) Temperature generally decreases while salinity generally increases with increasing depth. The average values of all records are 2.98℃ and 32.21 psu. (2) Salinity and temperature are well negatively correlated, and the correlation coefficient between them is -0.84. However, they did not always vary synchronously. Their co-variation featured different characters during different significant periods. (3) The average velocity for the whole water column is 141 mm/s with directional angle of 347.1°. The statistical distribution curve of velocity record number gets narrower with increasing depth. More than 85% of the recorded velocities are northward, and the mean magnitudes of dominated northward velocities are 100-150 mm/s. (4) Rotary spectrum analysis shows that motions with low frequency take a majority of energy in all layers. The most significant energy peaks for all layers are around 0.012 cph (about 3.5 d period), while the tidal motion in mooring area is nonsignificant. (5) Velocities in all layers feature similar and synchronous temporal variations, except for the slight decrease in magnitude and leftward twist from top to bottom. The directions of velocity correspond well to those of surface wind. The average northward volume transport per square meter is 0.1-0.2 m³/s under southerly wind, but about -0.2 m³/s during northerly wind burst.