Chukchi/Beaufort Seas mesoscal meteorology modeling study

Oil development in the Chukchi/Beaufort Seas is accompanied by the potential threat of oil spills. It is therefore of critical importance to be able to predict dispersal and movement of oil spills, and to assess the potential impacts on the environment if a spill should occur. Surface wind, primarily determined by prevailing local weather patterns and prominent underlying geographic features, is a crucial parameter for assessing and predicting dispersal and movement of oil spills. As such, an environmental study of the Chukchi/Beaufort Seas mesoscale meteorology, specifically the surface wind, has been established aiming to ensure accurate simulation and prediction of ocean and sea ice circulation and correct assessment of oil spill risk.

The Chukchi/Beaufort region comprises a complex geographical environment, largely covered by sea ice on a seasonal basis over the ocean and bounded by the Brooks Range in the south on land. The complex orographic effects caused by the Brooks Range, along with Arctic sea breeze effects due to the land-sea ice/ocean thermal contrast along the coast, significantly complicate mesoscale weather systems and associated surface winds in this region. Numerical simulations for a domain encompassing the Chukchi/Beaufort region with a 10-km resolution have been performed with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The model's performance in simulating the Chukchi/Beaufort Seas wind field was analyzed against observations, with emphasis placed on evaluating the capabilities of WRF in simulating the sea breeze and topographic effects. Overall, the model performed reasonably well in estimating the surface winds as well as capturing the timing of the wind shifts and the magnitude of the surface wind speed. The capability of the WRF model in simulating the sea breeze-influenced surface wind fields for the study areas was confirmed. The topographic effects of the Brooks Range were found to exhibit complicated impacts under different types of weather systems. There were also found to be strong interactions between the sea breeze circulation and the Brooks Range.