SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WIND FORCING OF THE BERING SEA

The surface wind stress over the Bering Sea is estimated for the perio d 1946-90 from sea level pressure analyses, empirical relationships be tween the geostrophic wind and the surface wind, and a bulk aerodynami c formula. The focus is on the propagation and variability of the stre ss and the curl of the stress as a function of frequency. The stress a t high frequencies (>0.1 cpd) is dominated by northward- and eastward- propagating disturbances with mean wavelengths of approximately 2500 a nd 10 000 km, respectively. At periods of approximately 10-100 days, t he mean propagation is near zero; there are, however, significant inte rannual variations in the zonal propagation. Wind-driven ocean transpo rts estimated by the Sverdrup method for the deep Bering basin account for approximately 6 Sv or roughly one-half of the observed transport within the western boundary current along the Kamchatka peninsula. A l ow-pass-filtered (retaining periods greater than 18 months) time serie s of the Sverdrup transport exhibits a standard deviation of 25% of th e mean.