Oceaiiographic Investigations in the 

 Northern Bering Sea and Bering Strait 



June-July 1968 



David M. Htisby > 



INTRODUCTION 



Results of past investigations in the Bering 

 Sea and Bering Strait (Aagaard, 1964; Coach- 

 man and Aagaard, 1966 ; Coachman and Rankin. 

 1968; Husby, 1969) have shown four problem 

 areas: (1) turbulent mixing and transfer proc- 

 esses, (2) time-dependence of the velocity field, 

 (3) the role of atmospheric circulation in driv- 

 ing or modifying oceanic circulation, and (4) 

 general physical oceanography of the northern 

 Bering Sea. A cooperative cruise with the U.S. 



Coast Guard Oceanographic Unit and Univers- 

 ity of Washington was conducted on the USCGC 

 STATEN ISLAND (WAGB-278) during June- 

 July 1968 to investigate the general physical 

 oceanography of the northern Bering Sea and 

 Bering Strait, current How through the Bering 

 Strait, and transport of suspended sediments 

 by currents. 



' U.S. Coast Guard Oceanographic Unit, Washington, 

 D.C. Present Address: Oceanography Department, Uni- 

 versity of Washington, Seattle, Washington. 



DATA COLLECTION AND PROCESSING 



(".ruise (>hronology 



1968 

 25 June 



1 July 



4 Julv 



6 July 



9 July 



16 July 



17 July 



Departed Kodiak, Alaska en route to north- 

 ern Bering Sea. 



Moored current meter arrays and tempera- 

 ture-pressure recorders at 64°00'N, 171° 

 55'W and 65°37.9'N, 168°30'W. 



Moored temperature-pressure recorder at 

 65°00'N, 170°20'W. Ve.ssel anchored near- 

 by for period of 26 hours while hourly cur- 

 rent meter lowerings and two-hourly Nan- 

 sen casts made for time-series study. 



Vessel anchored at 63°20'N, 168°29'W for 

 30 hours for time-series observations. 



Completed third time-series study at 64° 

 OO'N, 172°00'W with total of 31 hours 

 spent on this station. Arrived at first 

 oceanographic station at 2100 hours 

 (GMT). 



Completed station number 55, but then oper- 

 ations halted due to fog and reports of 

 heavy concentrations of Soviet vessels in 

 the western channel of the Bering Strait. 



Survey resumed at 1000 hours on station 56. 



19 July Completed station 76 at 0400 hours. Re- 



occupied stations 56-58, to verify the 

 strong (180 cm/sec) current and marked 

 temperature inversions. Initiated search 

 for current meter array originally moored 

 at 65°37.9'N, 168°30'W. 



20 July Continued search for current meter array 



with no success. Abandoned search and 

 proceeded to Norton Sound to begin a 

 study of su.spended sediments. 



21 July Completed suspended sediment study and en 



route Nome, Alaska. 



22 July Disembarked scientific party at Nome with 



the exception of Mr. P. Joppa who re- 

 mained aboard to assist in search for 

 anchored instrument packages. Instru- 

 ments anchored at 65°37.9'N, 168°20'W 

 never located ; one of orange surface floats 

 was observed in fisherman's boat. Tem- 

 perature-pressure recorder anchored at 

 65° OO'N, 170^20'W was retrieved. 



23 July Instruments anchored at 64° OO'N, 171° 55'W 



were located but lost during retrieval. 



