FY 1991

Recent Lagrangian measurements along the Alaskan Stream

Stabeno, P.J., and R.K. Reed

Deep-Sea Res., 38(3), doi: 10.1016/0198-0149(91)90069-R, 289–296 (1991)

During 1986-87, 26 satellite-tracked drifting buoys were deployed on the shelf in the northern Gulf of Alaska; nine of these buoys entered the Alaskan Stream. The buoy trajectories showed a well- formed, narrow, high-speed current. Southern deviations from the high-speed core were generally wind-induced. All but one of the drifters eventually went aground on one of the Aleutian Islands or entered the Bering Sea. Some meandering of the path of the Alaskan Stream was evident just west of Kodiak Island but was not apparent farther downstream.