Project Title:    Exchange Between Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska 

Staff:

Shari Vaughan, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

Shelton Gay, M.Sc., Project Technician

Summary description:
The main objective of this project is to document the interannual variability of water mass exchange between Prince William Sound and the adjacent northern Gulf of Alaska at Hinchinbrook Entrance, and to identify mechanisms governing this exchange.  An upward-looking ADCP mooring will be deployed in Hinchinbrook Entrance to create time series of velocities over a three year period.  The mooring will be equipped with a CTD to create a simultaneous time series of deep temperature and salinity.  To identify the dominant factors that govern Prince William Sound/Gulf of Alaska exchange, the mooring velocity and deep temperature/salinity time series will be combined with additional data types collected under other research programs (e.g., OSRI NFS) already in progress.

Expected results or products: Documentation of the interannual variability of the currents at Hinchinbrook Entrance, and identifying the mechanisms that govern this exchange.  This will expand upon data collected during the Sound Ecossytem Assessment (SEA) project and will interface with two current studies in the area: the GLOBEC surveys in the northern Gulf of Alaska, and the Nowcast/Forecast project
Timeline:  2^nd year of a 3-year grant.  This grant period was October 1, 2000 - September 30, 2001
Project budget:  $98,800 in FY01
Funding source:  Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council