SBI AWS02-I CTD Data collected from the Polar Star in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas (NCEI Accession 0001290)

The field phase of the Shelf-Basin Interactions Experiment (SBI) began in 2002 with a series of three cruises to the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. SBI is a multi-institutional program investigating how the western Arctic shelves communicate with the interior of the Canada Basin, from a coupled physical/biochemical perspective. The physical oceanographic (PO) component of SBI was carried out on the Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star, from mid-July to mid-August. The primary aim of the PO component is to identify and understand the water masses and mechanisms by which shelf waters ventilate the western Arctic halocline.

The major goals of the 2002 Arctic West Summer cruise (AWS02) were to (1) deploy a system of moorings that will measure the outflow from the Chukchi shelf (the UW/UAF component); (2) deploy a high-resolution moored array across the Beaufort slope, downstream of the outflows, to determine how these waters are fluxed into the interior (the WHOI component); and (3) conduct a hydrographic survey encompassing locations along the Chukchi and Beaufort shelf edge. The cruise was a resounding success on all accounts.