Collaborative Research: Variability and Forcing
of Fluxes through Nares Strait and Jones Sound:
A Freshwater Emphasis

PI: Kelly K. Falkner, Oregon State University
PI: Andreas Muenchow, University of Delaware

Abstract
The flux through the Canadian Archipelago is known to be a missing variable in the freshwater flux
calculations for the Arctic Ocean. This effort will be part of a combined US-Canadian-Japanese research
team that will apply a combination of proven and innovative technologies to do among others; monitor
water properties and currents over a 3.5 year period in Nares Strait, Cardigan St. and Hell Gate using
moorings; measure ice-fluxes through satellite-based and mooring observations; create a tracer
hydrographic time-series, explore bivalve shell records as a proxy for historical through flow variability;
and use Arctic and global models to parameterize oceanic through flow. Outreach to secondary education
and general public levels via teacher participation in cruises, media and internet interactions with local
communities, i.e. the Nunavut Federation, undergraduate, graduate and technical training and
communication with the broader scientific community are part of the research plan.

The following are components of the field research plan: 1) Mooring arrays at Nares Strait and Jones
Sound. The array will be deployed across the Kennedy Channel and will resolve the spatial and temporal
scales required to develop accurate estimate of fluxes, errors and dynamical responses to remote and local
forcing. 2) Use of Advance Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) and AVHRR imagery to determine
ice advection. Comparing satellite data to upward looking sonar measurements will assess errors in ice
motion estimates. These measurements will be used to estimate ice fluxes across defined sections of Nares Strait, Jones Sound and Lancaster Sound. 3) Various chemical species will be measured as hydrographic tracers to decipher water mass origins. Stable carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions of modern mollusks will be measured to trace seasonal and interannual variations in hydrographic conditions. 4) Models will be used to determine wind stress fields in the Strait. A regional and global system modeling
effort will assess ice dynamics and freshwater flow both east and west to Greenland.