Monitoring the volume, freshwater and heat fluxes passing through Lancaster sound in the Canadian arctic archipelago

Abstract A research project, consisting of instrumentation development and mooring work, has monitored the volume, heat and freshwater fluxes passing through Lancaster Sound, one of the three main pathways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Instrumentation to measure the current direction of the Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) moored in this region of low horizontal magnetic field strength have been successfully developed and implemented. Time series data from August 1998 to September 2001 of the salinity, temperature and velocity fields and the derived estimates of the volume, freshwater and heat fluxes passing through Lancaster Sound are reported. The fluxes exhibit large seasonal and interannual variabilities. Fluxes are small in fall and winter and reach their maxima in late summer. The seasonal eastward volume flux estimate ranged from a low of ‐0.01 Sv in the fall of 1998 to a maximum of 1.3 Sv in the summer of 2000. Its three‐year mean of 0.75 Sv varies interannually by ±0.25 Sv. F...