Assessing year to year variability of inertial oscillation in the Chukchi Sea using the wavelet transform

Abstract

Three years of ocean drifter data from the Chukchi Sea were examined using the wavelet transform to investigate inertial oscillation. There was an increasing trend in number, duration, and hence total proportion of time spent in inertial oscillation events. Additionally, the Chukchi Sea seems to facilitate inertial oscillation that is easier to discern using north-south velocity records rather than east-west velocity records. The data used in this analysis was transformed using wavelets, which are generally used as a qualitative statistical method. Because of this, in addition to measurement error and random ocean noise, there is an additional source of variability and correlation which makes concrete statistical results challenging to obtain. However, wavelets were an effective tool for isolating the specific period of inertial oscillation and examining how it changed over time.