Wave diffraction through submerged flexible breakwaters

This paper presents an analytical, computationally efficient method for the wave reflection and dynamic displacement of a submerged flexible breakwater. The solution of the two-dimensional linearized hydrodynamic problem introduced is based on the eigenfunction expansion technique. The breakwater is assumed to be thin, impermeable, flexible, moored to the bed through tethers and kept in tension by means of a floating buoy at its tip. The beam structure is considered to be either clamped or hinged at the sea bed, situated in an arbitrary water depth and subjected to normal linear waves. Numerical examples presented by this method are compared with those obtained by the Boundary Integral Equation Method, presented by Williams et al. Comparisons show an excellent agreement over a wide range of parameters for the wave reflection and the dynamic displacement. Numerical results are presented, mainly to show the effect of the breakwater rigidity and the method of fixation on the wave reflection and the structural displacement over a wide range of wave frequencies.     

On the dynamics of oceanographic surface moorings

An analytical model is proposed for predicting the dynamics of instrumented oceanographic surface moorings made up of a combination of wire rope and compliant synthetic rope. The model simplifies the problem by treating only the vertical motion of the buoy and the longitudinal motion of the mooring line and attached instruments. It is demonstrated using full-scale experimental data and numerical simulations, that the simplified model captures all of the important dynamic effects and gives accurate predictions of the dynamic tension at the top of the mooring line. The model shows that the total mass and damping of the instruments and wire rope that make up the stiff upper half of the mooring are the major sources of the dynamic tension. Damping of the instruments becomes a significant factor in larger sea states, especially near the peak frequency of the wave spectrum. Elastic stretching of the wire and synthetic rope make up approximately 10% of the total response. This is based on a coefficient of friction equal to 0.003 which fits the experimental data best.     

Some General Properties of Transverse Motions of the Geostrophic Front

Within the framework of the reduced-gravity model of the ocean taking into account the effect of friction in the Rayleigh form, we study the two-dimensional problem of nonlinear motions of a subsurface front of finite width. We consider the conservation laws and the character of motion of the center-of-mass of the cross section of the front and their variations caused by the losses of energy. For fields with special structure, the problem is reduced to the solution of a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. It is shown that the initially geostrophic frontal current decays with time according to a power law. The deviations of the initial state of the front from the state of geostrophic balance result in the generation of superinertial oscillations of the hydrodynamic fields.     

Atmospheric forcing of the southeast Bering Sea Shelf during 1995–99 in the context of a 40-year historical record

The atmospheric forcing of the Bering Sea over its eastern shelf is estimated using the 40-year record of daily data from the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis. This data set includes estimates of the processes responsible for the atmospheric forcing, namely the surface fluxes of momentum, sensible and latent heat, and longwave and shortwave radiation, and therefore permits quantifying effects that previously could be inferred only from the large-scale nature of the flow. The forcing in 1995–1999 is described in detail using daily time series; historical context for these results is provided with seasonal averages for the years 1959–1999.The analysis for winter concentrates on aspects related to the formation and advection of sea ice. Results indicate that the presence of sea ice is strongly related to the net surface-heat fluxes as well as the cross-shelf component of the wind. The 40-year record lacks any discernible long-term trend in the winter forcing and response. There was a notably cold period in the early to middle 1970s, and a warm period from the late 1970s into the early 1980s, but conditions during the 1990s are similar to those in the late 1950s and 1960s.The analysis for the warm season focuses on the mechanisms responsible for the variability in SST warming. Much of the intraseasonal and interannual variability in this warming can be attributed to variations in the downward shortwave radiation (solar heating). The 40-year record does indicate a long-term trend toward increased solar heating, and reduced surface latent-heat fluxes (evaporative cooling). These changes have led to August SSTs in the 1990s that are roughly 1°C warmer than in the 1960s.     

Stratigraphy of the sediment infill in Bosphorus Strait: water exchange between the Black and Mediterranean Seas during the last glacial Holocene

The sediment infill over the Paleozoic bedrock in the Bosphorus Strait consists of four sedimentary units which were deposited in the last 26,000 ¹⁴C years B.P. The stratigraphy of these units suggests that this part of the Bosphorus was a freshwater lake between 26,000 and 5,300 ¹⁴C years B.P., depositing sands with a freshwater mollusc fauna of Black Sea neo-euxinian affinity (Dreissena rostriformis, Dreissena polymorpha, and Monodacna pontica). The first appearance of euryhaline Mediterranean molluscs (e.g., Ostrea edulis, Mytilus edulis) was observed at 5,300 ¹⁴C years B.P. in this part of the Bosphorus. Deposition of coarse Mytilus-bank and Ostrea-bank units suggests that the establishment of the present dual-flow regime in the Bosphorus took place at about 4,400 ¹⁴C years B.P.     

Imbalance in the carbonate budget of surficial sediments in the North Atlantic Ocean: variations over the last millenium?

Fluxes contributing to the particulate carbonate system in deep-sea sediments were investigated at the BENGAL site in the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (Northeast Atlantic). Deposition fluxes were estimated using sediment traps at a nominal depth of 3000 m and amounted to 0.37±0.1 mmol C m⁻² d⁻¹. Dissolution of carbonate was determined using flux of total alkalinity from in situ benthic chambers, is 0.4±0.1 mmol C m⁻² d⁻¹. Burial of carbonate was calculated from data on the carbonate content of the sediment and sedimentation rates from a model age based on ¹⁴C dating on foraminifera (0.66±0.1 mmol C m⁻² d⁻¹). Burial plus dissolution was three times larger than particle deposition flux which indicates that steady-state is not achieved in these sediments. Mass balances for other components (BSi, ²¹⁰Pb), and calculations of the focusing factor using ²³⁰Th, show that lateral inputs play only a minor role in this imbalance. Decadal variations of annual particle fluxes are also within the uncertainty of our average. Long-term change in dissolution may contribute to the imbalance, but can not be the main reason because burial alone is greater than the input flux. The observed imbalance is thus the consequence of a large change of carbonate input flux which has occured in the recent past. A box model is used to check the response time of the solid carbonate system in these sediments and the time to reach a new steady-state is in the order of 3 kyr. Thus it is likely that the system has been perturbed recently and that large dissolution and burial rates reflect the previously larger particulate carbonate deposition rates. We estimate that particulate carbonate fluxes have certainly decreased by a factor of at least 3 and that this change has occurred during the last few centuries.