Summer Time Flushing of an Arctic Multi-inlet Lagoon under Storms from 2013 to 2015

Arctic storms in the late summer and early fall can produce severe weather conditions for the seasonally unfrozen coastal waters. The alternating wind directions due to the movement of Arctic high pressure systems and atmospheric low pressure frontal systems produce a low frequency subtidal oscillation of water levels, causing flushing and through flows in Arctic lagoons with multiple inlets. From 2013 to 2015, we conducted surveys in late summer and early fall with bottom deployed acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP) in a 16-m deep tidal pass of the Elson Lagoon, and ship based surveys in the nearshore Barrow region of Alaska. Atmospheric, CTD, water level, and wave data were also obtained during this period. An atmospheric Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was run to resolve the evolution of the high pressure movement and wind regime changes. A coastal ocean hydrodynamics model was run to illustrate the dynamical processes as shown by the observations. Our results have shown the sensitivity of the flushing and through flow oscillations in the multi-inlet lagoon to the atmospheric pressure systems, which also can be used to explain the great inter-annual variabilities and impact on ice movement in and out of the lagoons. This variability in hydrodynamic conditions, driven by meteorological phenomenon, is believed to play a significant role in structuring the nearshore ecology of the region.