[22-Feb-2024] Durski, S.M., Kurapov, A.L., Smith, J.I., and Jung, J.
Presented at the 2024 Ocean Sciences MeetingSalinity distribution on the eastern Bering Sea shelf is determined by a variety of processes including freshwater inflow from major rivers, exchange with the Arctic Ocean through Bering Strait, shelf-basin exchange and freeze/melt processes associated with sea ice. The winter of 2018-19 was an extremely low-ice year while the following winter approached average sea ice coverage for the Bering Sea shelf. In this study we use a high resolution regional coupled sea ice ocean model of the full Bering Sea for these two years to explore the importance of winter sea ice extent relative to other mechanisms in determining shelf salinity distributions in the early summer. For this study we use the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) coupled with a single category sea ice model, forced with ERA5 atmospheric fields and a global HYCOM solution for lateral boundary conditions. Model solutions are compared with observations at shelf and Bering Strait mooring locations along with satellite estimates of surface salinity, temperature, and height. Particular attention is focused on distributions of brine and meltwater, the evolution of the tidal mixing front on the inner shelf and variations in characteristics of the shelf break front on the outer shelf. Circulation in the vicinity of Cape Navarin can play a particularly significant role in determining salinity distribution in the Anadyr Basin of the northwest Bering Sea shelf as shifts in the slope current, upwelling, and Anadyr River discharge all intersect there to contribute to the intermittent northeastward flow in the Anadyr current.