Bering Strait which approximately paralleled 

 local isobaths, converged on promontories and 

 curved into a clockwise eddy northeast of Cape 

 Lisburne. The distributions of temperature and 

 salinity supported this pattern with isotherms 

 and isohalines generally paralleling the iso- 

 baths and forming an eddy pattern northeast 

 of Cape Lisburne. 



There have been no extensive programs of 

 current measurement in the eastern Chukchi 

 Sea during the fall months. Aagaard (1964) 

 has reported the results of a cruise in this area 

 during October 1962 but there were no direct 

 measurements of current performed and his 

 description of circulation was based entirely on 

 inference from the distributions of water prop- 

 erties. He described a two-layer system in- 

 volving "Alaskan coastal water" in the surface 

 layer and "warm subsurface water" beneath 

 it. The "Alaskan coastal water" did not flow 

 northeastward from Cape Lisburne as expected 

 but turned to the northwest instead, apparently 

 because of prevailing northeasterly winds in 

 the Cape Lisburne-Icy Cape area. The "warm 

 subsurface water," however, apparently was 

 not influenced by the wind stress and turned to 

 flow northeastward beyond Cape Lisburne. 



There are no general descriptions of circula- 

 tion during the winter months in the eastern 

 Chukchi Sea. Coachman and Tripp (1970) have 

 reported measurements obtained over a period 

 of 4 days, 21-25 March 1968, with a recording 

 current meter suspended 15 m beneath an ice 

 floe drifting about 190 km (114 nm) NNE of 

 Bering Strait (approximately 140 nm SW of 

 Cape Lisburne). Their results indicated that 

 the northward flow from the Bering Strait that 

 has been frequently measured in summer 

 months also is present in winter. 



RESULTS OF WEBSEC-70 



Data Collection and Processing 



WEBSEC-70 was conducted from the 

 USCGC GLACIER (WAGB-4) in the eastern 

 Chukchi Sea during 23 September-18 October 

 1970. Eighty-five stations were occupied in the 

 vicinity of Cape Lisbume-Icy Cape in a grad- 

 ually diminishing area of open water between 

 the polar ice pack and the northern Alaskan 

 coast (figs. 1 and 2). Physical and chemical 

 oceanographic data were collected at these sta- 



tions from 47 Nansen bottle casts, 136 expend- 

 able bathythermograph (XBT) drops, and 28 

 current meter lowerings. 



Te)npe7'ature 



Water temperature data were obtained by 

 use of paired reversing thermometers attached 

 to Nansen bottles and by XBTs calibrated with 

 bucket thermometer readings. 



Salinity 



Water samples were drawn from Teflon-lined 

 Nansen bottles for salinity determinations 

 conducted on board with inductive salino- 

 meters. The salinometers were calibrated with 

 standard (Copenhagen) water at least once 

 per 30 samples. Conductivity values obtained 

 were converted to salinity values by use of the 

 International Oceanographic Tables published 

 jointly by UNESCO and the National Institute 

 of Oceanography of Great Britain (UNESCO, 

 1966). 



Dissolved Oxygen Concentration 



Water samples were drawn from Teflon-lined 

 Nansen bottles for shipboard analysis of dis- 

 solved oxygen by means of a modified Winkler 

 titration (Strickland and Parsons, 1968). 

 Values of percent saturation were computed 

 utilizing a computer program based on tables 

 of oxygen saturation developed by Green and 

 Carritt (1967). 



Dissolved Nutrients 



Techniques described in the manual of 

 Strickland and Parsons (1968) were used in 

 the determination of nutrients. Molybdate com- 

 plexes of phosphate and silicate were reduced 

 to form colored complexes. Nitrate was first 

 reduced to nitrite using a cadmium-copper 

 column, and then converted to a highly colored 

 azo dye. A Beckman DU-2 spectrophotometer 

 was employed in measuring the light transmit- 

 tance of the treated samples. The resulting 

 extinction values were converted to concentra- 

 tions, in microgram-atoms/liter, taking into 

 account the salt effect. 



Sampling Depth 



The Nansen casts were all too shallow to em- 

 ploy effectively unprotected reversing thermo- 

 meters to obtain measurements of sampling 

 depths. Meter wheel readings and wire angle 



