Summer circulation of the waters in Queen Charlotte sound

Abstract

An extensive set of measurements of currents, winds, subsurface pressures and water properties was undertaken in the summer of 1982 in Queen Charlotte Sound on the west coast of Canada. At most observation sites the summer‐averaged currents are found to be about 10 cm s^?1, smaller than the tidal currents but comparable to the standard deviation of the non‐tidal currents. The strongest average flow was the outflow of surface water past Cape St James at the northwestern corner of the Sound. During strong winds from the north or northwest a strong outflow of near‐surface fresher water was also observed over Cook Bank in the south. Eddies dominate the motion in the interior of the Sound, as shown by the behaviour of a near‐surface drifter that remained in mid‐Sound for 40 days before a storm pushed it into Hecate Strait. The disorganized, weak currents in the central Sound will likely allow surface waters or floating material to remain there for periods of several weeks in summer.

Empirical orthogonal function analyses of fluctuating currents, subsurface pressures and winds reveal that a single mode explains most of the wind and pressure variance but not the current variance. The first two pressure modes represent two distinct physical processes. The first mode is a nearly uniform, up‐and‐down pumping of the surface, while the second mode tilts across the basin from east to west, likely due to geostrophic adjustment of wind‐driven currents. This mode also tilts from south to north, owing to along‐strait wind stress. Most contributions to the first mode currents come from meters near shore or the edge of a trough. Coherence is high between these second mode pressures and first mode currents and winds, and lower but still significant between first mode pressures and first mode currents and winds. It is therefore difficult to predict the behaviour of currents in Queen Charlotte Sound in summer from pressure measurements at a single site, but the difference in sea‐level across Hecate Strait is a more reliable indicator.     

Oceanographic features of Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound in Summer

Abstract

We present evidence of previously unresolved oceanographic features in Queen Charlotte Sound and Hecate Strait using data collected in the summer of 1990 and interpreted using a three‐dimensional, finite‐element diagnostic numerical model for two separate simulations: baroclinic flow without wind‐forcing and barotropic flow with wind‐forcing. Features include a strong, prevailing southward flow along the east coast of Moresby and Kunghit Islands, clockwise circulation around the edge of Middle Bank and a cold‐water plume flowing from the shallows at the north end of Aristazabal Island toward the south and through the trough between Middle Bank and Goose Island Bank A persistent (near‐surface) outflow into the Pacific Ocean is found near the surface within 20 km of Cape St. James at the southern tip of the Queen Charlotte Islands and intermittent surface outflows are observed across the mouth of Queen Charlotte Sound. In central Hecate Strait, to the north of Middle Bank, prevailing along‐strait currents are weak and there is an east‐west interleaving of two water masses: warm water from the west side of the strait and cold water from the east side.     

Storm Surges in the Strait of Georgia Simulated with a Regional Model

The Strait of Georgia is a large, semi-enclosed body of water between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia connected to the Pacific Ocean via Juan de Fuca Strait at the south and Johnstone Strait at the north. During the winter months, coastal communities along the Strait of Georgia are at risk of flooding caused by storm surges, a natural hazard that can occur when a strong storm coincides with high tide. This investigation produces storm surge hindcasts using a three-dimensional numerical ocean model for the Strait of Georgia and the surrounding bodies of water (Juan de Fuca Strait, Puget Sound, and Johnstone Strait) collectively known as the Salish Sea. The numerical model employs the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean architecture in a regional configuration. The model is evaluated through comparisons of tidal elevation harmonics and storm surge with observations. Important forcing factors contributing to storm surges are assessed. It is shown that surges entering the domain from the Pacific Ocean make the most significant contribution to surge amplitude within the Strait of Georgia. Comparisons between simulations and high-resolution and low-resolution atmospheric forcing further emphasize that remote forcing is the dominant factor in surge amplitudes in this region. In addition, local wind patterns caused a slight increase in surge amplitude on the mainland side of the Strait of Georgia compared with Vancouver Island coastal areas during a major wind storm on 15 December 2006. Generally, surge amplitudes are found to be greater within the Strait of Georgia than in Juan de Fuca Strait.     

A subtropical water intrusion spring-event in the shelf-slope of the south-western Bay of Biscay after strong wind-forcing pulses

Two consecutive multidisciplinary surveys, covering the north and north-western part of the Iberian shelf and slope during spring 2000, showed a dramatic change in the oceanographic conditions as a result of a southern water intrusion that replaced shelf and slope waters down to 300 m depth. The intrusion covered an alongshore distance of ∼400 km from the north of Cape Finisterre to the centre of the Cantabrian Sea, and was developed in less than a month between the two occupations of the same area. The analysis of surface currents from several buoys moored over the slope allow us to associate the emerging oceanographic configuration after the event with a strong and well-defined slope current, although during winter 1999-2000 the entrance of the Iberian Poleward Current (IPC) in the Bay of Biscay was very weak. The rapid development of the intrusion is discussed in relation with the unusual strong wind forcing pulse that occurred between the cruises. Our results highlight the importance of variability scales below seasonal (event-scale) in the Iberian margin.     

Tide,Wind, and River Forcing of the Surface Currents in the Fraser River Plume

A long-term record of surface currents from a high-frequency radar system, along with near-surface hydrographic transects, moored current meter records, and satellite imagery, are analyzed to determine the relative importance of river discharge, wind, and tides in driving the surface flow in the Fraser River plume. The observations show a great deal of oceanographic and instrumental variability. However, averaged quantities yielded robust results. The effect of river flow, which determines buoyancy and inertia near the river mouth, was found by taking a long-term average. The resulting flow field was dominated by a jet with two asymmetric gyres; the anticyclonic gyre to the north had flow speeds consistent with geostrophy. The mean flow speed near the river mouth was 14.3?cm?s^–1, while the flow further afield was 5?cm?s^–1 or less. Wind stress and surface currents were highly coherent in the subtidal frequency band. Northwesterly winds drive a surface flow to the southeast at speeds of nearly 30?cm?s^–1. Southeasterly winds drive a surface flow to the northwest at speeds reaching 20?cm?s^–1; however, there is more spatial variability in speed and direction relative to the northwesterly wind case. A harmonic analysis was used to extract the tidally driven flows. Ellipse parameters for the major tidal constituents varied considerably in both alignment and aspect ratio over the radar domain, in direct contrast to a barotropic model which predicted rectilinear flow along the Strait of Georgia. This is a result of water filling and draining the shallow mud flats north of the Fraser's main channel. The M₂ velocities at the surface were also weaker than their barotropic counterparts. However, the shallow water constituent MK₃ was enhanced at the surface and nearly as strong as the mean flow, implying that non-linear interactions are important to surface dynamics.     

The roles of different mechanisms related to the tide-induced fronts in the Yellow Sea in summer

In summer, the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass （YSCWM） is a stable water mass of low temperature lying at the bottom of the central Yellow Sea （YS）. It is fringed by some typical tidal fronts, which separate deep, stratified water on the offshore side from the well-mixed, shallow water on the inshore side. Three striking fronts--Subei Bank Front （SBF）, Shandong Peninsula Front （SPF）, and Mokpo Front （MKF; a front off the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula）--have been iden- tified by various studies from both satellite observations and model results. Tide plays an important role in the formation and maintenance of these fronts. However, it is still a matter of debate as to the roles these two kinds of mechanisms of upwelling and tidal mixing play, and how importance they are in the maintenance processes of the above three fronts. Basing a nested high-resolution model HYCOM （the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model）, this study focuses on the different mechanisms of tidal effects on the thermal fronts in the YS in summertime. Through comparative experiments with and without tidal forcing, the results indicate that the MKF is mainly driven by tide-induced upwelling. For the SPF, tidal mixing is the dominant factor, when lower cold water is stirred upwards along the sloping topography of the western YS. Meanwhile, the combined effect of upwelling and tidal mixing is the main cause of the formation of the SBF. Diagnostic analysis of thermal balance shows that horizontal nonlinear advection induced by strong tidal currents also contributes to the thermal balance of frontal areas.     

Winter‐time near‐surface currents in the strait of Juan de Fuca

Abstract

During November 1976 to February 1977 near‐surface wind, current and temperature measurements were made at three sites along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Strong tidal currents and major intrusions of warmer, fresher offshore coastal water were superimposed upon the estuarine circulation of near‐surface seaward flow. The r.m.s. amplitudes of the diurnal and semidiurnal tidal currents were ～30 cms^‐1 and 30–47 cm s^‐1, respectively. The vector‐mean flow at 4 m‐depth was seaward and decreased in speed from 28 cm s^‐1 at 74 km from the entrance to 9 cm s^‐1 at 11 km from the entrance. On five occasions intrusions of 1–3 C warmer northeast Pacific coastal water occurred for durations of 1–10 days. The 25 cm s^‐1 up‐strait speed of the intrusive lens agreed to within 20% of the gravity current speed computed from Benjamin's (1968) hydraulic model. The near‐surface currents associated with the intrusions and the southerly coastal winds were significantly correlated, indicating that the intrusions were initiated when shoreward Ekman currents advected Pacific coastal water into the Strait. The reversals were not significantly coherent with the along‐strait sea surface slope measured along the north side of the Strait nor were they strongly related to local wind forcing.     

Gas ventilation of the Saguenay fjord by an energetic tidal front

Abstract

Dissolved noble gas samples were taken during a pilot study in the Saguenay Fjord, Quebec, Canada, in order to determine the contribution of different air‐sea gas exchange mechanisms in an estuary and to assess the contribution of tidal fronts to the aeration of subsurface waters. The noble gases He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe span a large range of molecular diffusivities and solubilities and hence constitute a useful probe of various gas exchange and bubble injection processes. Samples were taken at flood tide upstream and downstream of an energetic tidal front that is generated by a hydraulically controlled flow over a shallow sill at the entrance to the Fjord. The results are interpreted with the help of hydrographic measurements of density and currents along cross‐sill transects describing the physical forcing at the sill. High gas saturations downstream of the sill indicate the aeration of water within the frontal region. An inverse model is used to compare the contribution of bubble injection in the front to diffusion across the air‐sea interface. The large ratio of completely ‘trapped’ bubbles to diffusion suggests that bubbles injected by waves breaking in the front contribute significantly to air‐sea gas exchange with 76% for He, 79% for Ne, 56% for Ar, 47% for Kr, and 35% for Xe.

Water samples were analyzed for helium isotopes and tritium in order to explore the possibility of constraining ventilation time scales. The relationship between tritium and salinity revealed two end‐member waters: a freshwater component from the Saguenay River of 23.6 ± 0.5 TU, likely a residual of bomb‐produced tritium, and a seawater end‐member of approximately 1.5 TU originating in the subpolar Atlantic. An unexpected contribution of radiogenic 4He was detected in the deep waters of the St. Lawrence Estuary, likely a consequence of out‐gassing from old, uranium and thorium rich granitic terrain.     

Surface currents in British Columbia coastal waters: Comparison of observations and model predictions

Abstract

Observations of the motion of ocean surface drifters are used to evaluate numerical simulations of surface currents in the region of Queen Charlotte Sound on the West Coast of Canada. More than 30 surface Argos drifters were deployed in the spring and summer of 1995, revealing daily average currents of 10 to 40 cm s^–1 near the coast of Vancouver Island in summer, and less than 10 cm s^–1 in mid‐sound. Wind observations in this region are provided by a network of weather buoys. Comparison of daily average drifter velocities and winds shows that the drifters moved at 2 to 3% of the wind speed, and at about 30 degrees to the right of the wind.

A complex transfer function is computed between daily wind and drifter vectors using least squares techniques. The ratio of variance in the least squares residual currents to the variance of observed drifter currents is denoted γ². A percent goodness‐of‐fit is defined as g(γ²) = 100(1 – γ²), and is 42% for the case of daily winds and drifter currents. Drifter‐measured currents are compared with two numerical simulations of surface currents: Fundy5, a steadystate baroclinic model based on historical water property measurements in summer, and the Princeton Ocean Model (POM), a prognostic, baroclinic model forced by the measured winds. Fundy5 by itself provides a goodness‐of‐fit of only 3%, whereas POM has g(γ²) = 42%. The combination of Fundy5 plus daily wind gives g(γ²) = 43%. Although the prognostic model performs only as well as the winds by themselves, it simulates the near shore currents more accurately and reproduces the speeds and veering in the surface Ekman layer on average without bias. Residual currents unexplained by POM are likely due to advection of water masses into this region and horizontal inhomogeneities in the density field that are not input to the model, as well as to Stokes drift of wind waves and to net Lagrangian tidal motion not represented by the model.     

A Model Simulation of Future Oceanic Conditions along the British Columbia Continental Shelf. Part II: Results and Analyses

An ocean circulation model for the British Columbia continental shelf is run with future initial conditions and forcing fields downscaled from the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program archive. Average seasonal sea surface temperatures for the period 2065 to 2078 are projected to increase by between 0.5° and 2.0°C with respect to analogous averages from 1995 to 2008. Seasonal sea surface salinities are projected to decrease by as much as 2.0 over the same period, though there are some regions where and periods when small increases are projected. Though stronger winter winds result in larger Haida Eddies, slightly stronger summer winds along the western Vancouver Island shelf do not result in appreciable changes to either the cross-shelf upwelling or to the magnitude of Juan de Fuca Eddies or the timing of their formation. However, increased flows are projected in some seasons for the Rose Spit, Middle Bank, and Goose Island Bank eddies. More precipitation over the watersheds emptying into coastal waters produces larger freshwater discharges and, in particular, a stronger estuarine flow in Juan de Fuca Strait and a stronger Vancouver Island Coastal Current. Generally increasing winds and decreasing density mean that the winter minus summer range of sea surface heights is projected to increase all along the coast.     

耦合模式中潮汐对北大西洋模拟的影响研究

将8个主要平衡分潮加入到耦合模式中,对比研究潮汐对北大西洋模拟影响。由于潮汐的引入,模式模拟SST在北大西洋中纬度区域偏差显著减小,高纬度区域SST降温明显。SST模拟的改变使潮汐试验的海表净热通量模拟误差下降了约30%,但高纬度海冰显著增加。模式中引入潮汐对北大西洋上层环流,尤其是西边界流的路径模拟改进显著,这是SST及海表净热通量模拟改变的主要原因。同时,北大西洋上层和深层西边界流在潮汐的作用下,都表现出环流减弱的特点,这也使得大西洋经向翻转环流在26.5°N处上层2 km的输送减弱,与观测数据更为接近。较弱的大西洋经向翻转环流导致海洋热量在中低纬度聚集而无法输送到高纬度区域,这是造成潮汐试验模拟的海温在中低纬度偏高、高纬度偏低的原因,较弱的热输送也同时导致了潮汐试验中北半球海冰面积增加。     

Uncertainties in the GSWP-2 precipitation forcing and their impacts on regional and global hydrological simulations

The Global Soil Wetness Project (GSWP) is an international initiative aimed at producing global data sets of soil wetness and energy and water fluxes by driving land surface models with state-of-the-art 1° by 1° atmospheric forcing and land surface parameters. It also provides a unique opportunity to develop and test land surface parameterizations at the global scale, using multi-year off-line simulations that are not affected by the systematic errors found in atmospheric models. Nevertheless, the accuracy and reliability of the 10?year GSWP-2 atmospheric forcing remain questionable. A first comparison using the high-resolution Rhône-AGGregation (Rhône-AGG) database reveals that the baseline GSWP-2 precipitation forcing is drastically overestimated over the Rhône river basin. Hydrological simulations driven with each dataset and using the ISBA land surface model and the MODCOU river routing model are also compared. The simulated river discharges are validated against a dense network of river gauges and are generally less realistic when using the GSWP-2 instead of the Rhône-AGG precipitation forcing. Secondly, the GSWP-2 precipitation forcing is compared with three alternative data sets (GPCP-2, CRU-2, CMAP) at the global scale. Moreover, the results of a global sensitivity study to the precipitation forcing conducted with six land surface models are shown. The TRIP river routing model is used to convert daily runoff from all models into river discharges, which are compared at 80 gauging stations distributed over the globe. In agreement with the regional evaluation, the results reveal that the baseline GSWP-2 precipitation forcing is generally overestimated over the mid and high latitudes, which implies systematic errors in the simulated discharges. This study reveals that the empirical wind corrections applied to the GSWP-2 precipitation forcing are exaggerated, whereas the GPCP satellite adjustments seem to be useful for simulating realistic annual mean river discharges over the East Siberian river basins.     

Tidal mixing in the Indonesian Seas and its effect on the tropical climate system

The sensitivity of the tropical climate to tidal mixing in the Indonesian Archipelago (IA) is investigated using a coupled general circulation model. It is shown that the introduction of tidal mixing considerably improves water masses properties in the IA, generating fresh and cold anomalies in the thermocline and salty and cold anomalies at the surface. The subsurface fresh anomalies are advected in the Indian Ocean thermocline and ultimately surface to freshen the western part of the basin whereas surface salty anomalies are advected in the Leuwin current to salt waters along the Australian coast. The ~0.5°C surface cooling in the IA reduces by 20% the overlying deep convection. This improves both the amount and structure of the rainfall and weakens the wind convergence over the IA, relaxes the equatorial Pacific trade winds and strengthens the winds along Java coast. These wind changes causes the thermocline to be deeper in the eastern equatorial Pacific and shallower in the eastern Indian Ocean. The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) amplitude is therefore slightly reduced while the Indian Ocean Dipole/Zonal Mode (IODZM) variability increases. IODZM precursors, related to ENSO events the preceding winter in this model, are also shown to be more efficient in promoting an IODZM thanks to an enhanced wind/thermocline coupling. Changes in the coupled system in response tidal mixing are as large as those found when closing the Indonesian Throughflow, emphasizing the key role of IA on the Indo-Pacific climate.     

Seasonal Cycles,Hypoxia, and Renewal in a Coastal Fjord (Barkley Sound,British Columbia)

The west coast of Vancouver Island (WCVI) is an important marine ecosystem in which concentrations of dissolved oxygen can reach hypoxic levels at certain times of the year. Although the general features of its oceanography are well understood, little is known in particular about the seasonal cycle of oxygen in shelf areas and its interannual variability. It is possible that high temporal resolution monitoring efforts could be carried out relatively easily in sheltered fjords adjacent to the shelf, but the linkages between conditions in these fjords and those on the shelf are also not known. Here a 10-year time series of monthly hydrographic stations in Barkley Sound, British Columbia, is used to identify the seasonal cycle of temperature, salinity, density, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll fluorescence in a WCVI fjord. Analysis suggests that there is a standard estuarine circulation in surface and near-surface waters of the Sound, as well as a deep renewal cycle in intermediate and deep waters, and that the two are largely independent. The deep basin in the Sound undergoes annual summer renewals in response to wind-driven upwelling on the shelf, separated by stagnation and hypoxia during fall, winter, and spring downwelling periods. Other than for the stagnant deep waters in winter, residence times in different parts of the Sound are only a few weeks. Barkley Sound characteristics thus adjust rapidly to shelf conditions, and inshore measurements can be used with care as a proxy for some shelf properties. However, phytoplankton biomass does not appear to be affected by the onset of deep renewal and the associated reversal of along-shore winds and instead responds to local factors. Finally, once the seasonal cycle has been accounted for, interannual variations in temperature, density, and dissolved oxygen are uncoupled, possibly in response to longer-term changes in the characteristics of source waters offshore and/or to changes in shelf processes.     

Density fronts in the vicinity of a long ridge

Laboratory experiments concerning the nature of density fronts in a two-layer fluid in the vicinity of a continuous ridge were conducted. The experiments were carried out in a circular rotating test cell containing an annular ridge of uniform cross-section. The density fronts were established by releasing a lighter fluid contained in a bottomless cylinder in the interior of the region defined by the topography into a heavier fluid occupying the rest of the test cell. The system was also equipped with an oscillating plunger located along the test cell axis to produce simulated tidal currents impinging in the normal direction on the ridge; experiments without and with tidal forcing were conducted. The governing parameters for the physical system considered are the Rossby, temporal Rossby, Burger and Ekman numbers and geometrical parameters. It is found that for both the non-forced and tidally forced experiments the fronts were stabilized by the ridge. The fronts in the simulated tidal currents experiments were found to advect radially outward more rapidly at early times than their non-forced counterparts; at large times, the temporal evolution of the front for these forced experiments approached that of the non-forced experiments. In the region interior to the annular ridge, the motion field is highly baroclinic, while outside this region, the flow response at the forcing frequency is barotropic. Scaling arguments regarding frontal position, viscous decay and barotropic oscillatory flow responses are advanced and supported by experimental observations.     

Fast data assimilation using a nonlinear Kalman filter and a model surrogate: An application to the Columbia River estuary

A fast and adjoint-free nonlinear data assimilation (DA) system was developed to simulate 3D baroclinic circulation in estuaries, leveraging two recently developed technologies: (1) a nonlinear model surrogate that executes forward simulation three orders of magnitude faster than a forward numerical circulation code and (2) a nonlinear extension to the reduced-dimension Kalman filter that estimates the state of the model surrogate. The noise sources in the Kalman filter were calibrated using empirical cross-validation and accounted for errors in model and model forcing.The DA system was applied to assimilate in situ measurements of water levels, salinities, and temperatures in simulations of the Columbia River estuary. To validate the DA results, we used a combination of cross-validation studies, process-oriented studies, and tests of statistical and dynamical consistency. The validation studies showed that DA improved the representation of several important processes in the estuary, including nonlinear tidal propagation, salinity intrusion, estuarine residual circulation, heat balance, and response of the estuary to coastal winds.     

Fast data assimilation using a nonlinear Kalman filter and a model surrogate: An application to the Columbia River estuary

A fast and adjoint-free nonlinear data assimilation (DA) system was developed to simulate 3D baroclinic circulation in estuaries, leveraging two recently developed technologies: (1) a nonlinear model surrogate that executes forward simulation three orders of magnitude faster than a forward numerical circulation code and (2) a nonlinear extension to the reduced-dimension Kalman filter that estimates the state of the model surrogate. The noise sources in the Kalman filter were calibrated using empirical cross-validation and accounted for errors in model and model forcing.The DA system was applied to assimilate in situ measurements of water levels, salinities, and temperatures in simulations of the Columbia River estuary. To validate the DA results, we used a combination of cross-validation studies, process-oriented studies, and tests of statistical and dynamical consistency. The validation studies showed that DA improved the representation of several important processes in the estuary, including nonlinear tidal propagation, salinity intrusion, estuarine residual circulation, heat balance, and response of the estuary to coastal winds.     

Modelling stratification and baroclinic flow in the estuarine transition zone of the St. Lawrence estuary

Abstract

This paper presents a hydrodynamic study of the St. Lawrence Estuary's estuarine transition zone, a 100 km region where fresh water from the river mixes with salt water from the estuary. The circulation of the estuarine transition zone is driven by strong tides, a large river flow, and well‐defined salinity gradients. For this study, a three‐dimensional hydrodynamic model was applied to the estuarine transition zone of the St. Lawrence Estuary and used to examine stratification and density‐driven baroclinic flow. The model was calibrated to field observations and subsequently predicted water level elevations, along‐channel currents, and salinity with mean errors of less than 9%, 11%, and 17%, respectively. The baroclinic density‐driven currents were distinguished from the tidal barotropic currents by using principal component analysis. Stratification and baroclinic flow were observed to vary throughout the estuarine transition zone on tidal and subtidal spring‐neap time scales. On a semidiurnal tidal time scale, stratification was periodic, and baroclinic flow was represented by pulses of sheared exchange flow, suggesting that neither buoyancy forcing nor turbulent mixing is dominant at this scale. On a subtidal spring‐neap time scale, stratification and baroclinic flow varied inversely with tidal energy, increasing on weak neap tides and decreasing on strong spring tides.     

THREE-DIMENSIONAL MESOSCALE MODELING OF METEOROLOGICAL FIELDS OVER ZHUJIANG(PEARL)RIVER DELTA

The CSU-RAMS-2A was used to simulate the meteorological fields over the Zhujiang River Delta in South China.Initialized from a horizontally homogeneous atmosphere,real topography and inhomogeneous surface boundary condi-tions,the model was run with thermal and terrain forcing.The modeling results of winter and summer cases are com-pared with those observed.The similarity of the predicted distributions of winds,temperatures and humidities to the ob-served patterns permits us to conclude that the mesoscale distribution of meteorological elements for the two study datesis the result of the thermal and dynamical forcing by the underlying surface and topography.     

Atmospheric and tidal forcing of the exchange between Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska

Current meter data from a series of oceanographic moorings spanning a total of five years was analyzed to quantify the tidal and subtidal exchange of water between Prince William Sound and the adjacent continental shelf in the northern Gulf of Alaska. Velocity profiles were used to quantify the exchange in terms of a transport through each of the two largest passages: Montague Strait and Hinchinbrook Entrance. Buoy wind and atmospheric pressure observations, as well as bottom pressure records, are then used to elucidate the role of atmospheric forcing on the exchange.An EOF analysis shows that the barotropic component accounts for 62% or more of the variance in the velocity profiles even after tides are removed by low-pass filtering, and thus the analysis is concerned primarily with depth-integrated transport. The estimated depth-integrated transport can reach ±0.6 Sv in Montague Strait, and ±1.5 Sv in Hinchinbrook Entrance. The largest fluctuations occur in response to the semidiurnal tides. Transport variations on subtidal time scales, which can reach −0.2 Sv in Montague Strait, and +0.6 Sv in Hinchinbrook Entrance, are shown by a frequency domain analysis to be dominated by easterly wind stress events which occur at periods of 2–5 days in both summer and winter. Atmospheric pressure has much less impact on transport, but there is some evidence that it might play a small role on time scales of a few weeks.Bottom pressure records suggest that easterly wind events set up a sea level height gradient in Hinchinbrook Entrance such that it tilts up to the east, which under geostrophy drives a barotropic flow into Prince William Sound. The same winds also raise the sea level in Hinchinbrook Entrance relative to Montague Strait, encouraging an outflow there in agreement with the ADCP observations. There is no evidence that the wind drives a vertically sheared bi-directional flow in either entrance, as has been observed in some estuaries. It is hypothesized that the lack of such a flow is possible because Prince William Sound has two major connections to the shelf, which alters the mass conservation requirement for each passage when compared to a system with just one entrance.