Tidal wave transformations in the German Bight

Mesoscale and submesoscale dynamics associated with tidal wave transformations were addressed in the German Bight using numerical simulations. Tidal gauge and velocity observations in several locations were used to validate the numerical model. A downscaling approach included analysis of simulations with horizontal resolutions of 1, 0.4, and 0.2 km. It was shown that the modified tidal wave lost most of its energy after reflection or refraction over the eastern part of the German Bight. Energy loss resulted in a pronounced change of the wave’s spectral composition and generation of overtides. Tidal oscillations were modified by mesoscale processes associated with bathymetric channels. Semidiurnal and quarterdiurnal tides revealed very different spatial patterns. The former were aligned with the bathymetric channels, while the latter were rather “patchy” and had about half the spatial scales. In numerous areas around the bathymetric channels, the major axis of the M₄ ellipses was normal or at some angle with the major axis of the M₂ ellipses. Thus, higher harmonics developed “orthogonal” patterns that drove secondary circulations. Moreover, the ratio between spring and neap tidal amplitudes was relatively low in the Wadden Sea, showing reduced sensitivity of this very shallow area to fortnightly tidal variations. It was demonstrated that simulated hydrodynamics patterns help explain the physical mechanism shaping the median grain size distribution in the German Bight.     

Meteorological influences on sea level and water temperature in the lower Chesapeake Bay: 1992

The influence of atmospheric forcing on the flow and heat transports in the lower Chesapeake Bay and the adjacent coastal ocean were studied by comparing nontidal sea level and sea surface temperature variations in this region with meteorological data for 1992. Northeasterly and southwesterly winds caused the greatest changes in mean sea level (greater than 0.25 m) throughout the year. Northeastely winds caused a more rapid response than southwesterly winds, causing sea-level rises in less than 6 h. Barometric pressure changes typically contributed approximately 10% to extreme sea-level variations and were less influential than wind stress in most cases. Wind forcing was also responsible for summer events in which the horizontal water temperature gradient between two near-surface locations in the vicinity of the bay mouth vanished. These zero-gradient events corresponded to inflows and outflows at the bay's entrance caused by northeasterly and southwesterly winds, respectively. Wind-induced advection outside the lower Chesapeake Bay was additionally responsible for extreme heat flux variations. Heat gains and losses during the spring and fall occurred in pulsating events related to wind direction but were probably not connected to lower bay processes.     

Lateral variability of flow over a sill in a channel of southern Chile

Measurements of velocity and density profiles were used to describe the tidal and mean flow structure across and along a sill in Refugio Channel, a fjord-like inlet in Southern Chile (43.9°S). These are the first oceanographic measurements of any kind effected in Refugio Channel. Current profiles were obtained with a 307.2-kHz acoustic Doppler current profiler during two semidiurnal cycles along a repeated triangular circuit. Two along-channel transects formed the sides of the triangle that crossed the sill and were identified as the western and eastern transects. One cross-channel transect, the base of the triangle, was located on the seaward side of the sill. Density profiles were obtained at the corners of the triangle. The longitudinal mean flow in the western transect showed a two-layer exchange structure over the landward side of the sill. The structure of net seaward flow at the surface and landward flow at depth was disrupted by the sill in such a way that over the seaward side of the sill, only seaward flow was observed throughout the water column. This likely resulted from the blocking of landward net flow by the sill. In the eastern transect, two-layer exchange dominated over most of the transect and was consistent with the observed density profiles. Over the seaward side of the sill, a surface layer, ∼10m deep, flowed landward as a third layer. This feature should have been caused by river input further seaward (to the north) and produced a surface convergence region over the sill. In terms of tidal flows, the greatest tidal current amplitudes were 40cm s⁻¹ over the sill as the flow accelerated through the reduced cross-sectional area of the channel. Near-surface flow convergences were identified over both along-channel transects.     

Depth-dependent overtides from internal tide reflection in a glacial fjord

Observations of current velocity profiles and hydrography over and near a tall sill in a Chilean glacial fjord are used to illustrate the interactions between barotropic and baroclinic tides. The character of the barotropic tide in the glacial fjord is mixed with semidiurnal dominance. The ratio of sill height to water column depth at the study site is ca. 0.95. Water column stratification appeared only in the upper 5 m of the water column. Current velocity variations in the stratified surface layer were quite different to those underneath. Below the pycnocline, nonlinear interactions between semidiurnal M₂ and diurnal K₁ oscillations yielded a third-diurnal distortion MK₃. Most interesting, surface layer currents were distortedby the superposition of semidiurnal M₂ and sixthdiurnal M₆ oscillations. The oscillations with M₆ variability were identified, through wave superposition approaches, as reflected internal tides linked to M₂ tidal variations. This was confirmed by theoretical results of stratified barotropic tidal flows interacting with abrupt bathymetry. Under the predominantly tidally mixed regime of the study area, the distortion to surface currents caused by the reflected wave was nearly symmetric during the large tidal ranges of the diurnal cycle. Nearly symmetric distortions resulted as the phase lag between incident and reflected wave-inducted currents was small (reflected currents developing a few minutes after maximum tidal flows). During the small ranges of the diurnal cycle, distortions were asymmetrical because of the relatively larger phase lags of the reflected signal (reflected currents developing tens of minutes after maximum tidal flows).     

Wind effects on the lateral structure of density-driven circulation in Chesapeake Bay

The response of the density-driven circulation in the Chesapeake Bay to wind forcing was studied with numerical experiments. A model of the bay with realistic bathymetry was first applied to produce the density-driven flow under average river discharge and tidal forcing. Subsequently, four spatially uniform wind fields (northeasterly, northwesterly, southwesterly, and southeasterly) were imposed to examine the resulting cross-estuary structure of salinity and flow fields. In general, northeasterly and northwesterly winds intensified the density-driven circulation in the upper and middle reaches of the bay, whereas southeasterly and southwesterly winds weakened it. The response was different in the lower bay, where downwind flow from the upper and middle reaches of the bay competed with onshore/offshore coastal flows. Wind remote effects were dominant, over local effects, on volume transports through the bay entrance. However, local effects were more influential in establishing the sea-level slopes that drove subtidal flows and salinity fields in most of the bay. The effect of vertical stratification on wind-induced flows was also investigated by switching it off. The absence of stratification allowed development of Ekman layers that reached depths of the same order as the water depth. Consequently, bathymetric effects became influential on the homogeneous flow structure causing the wind-induced flow inside the bay to show a marked transverse structure: downwind over the shallow areas and upwind in the channels. In the presence of stratification, Ekman layers became shallower and the wind-induced currents showed weaker transverse structure than those that developed in the absence of stratification. In essence, the wind-driven flows were horizontally sheared under weak stratification and vertically sheared under stratified conditions.     

3D Modal Solution for Tidally Induced Lagrangian Residual Velocity with Variations in Eddy Viscosity and Bathymetry in a Narrow Model Bay

In this study, we examine the results obtained by the Finite-volume Coastal Ocean Circulation Model(FVCOM) regarding the effects of eddy viscosity and bathymetry on the three-dimensional(3 D) Lagrangian residual velocity(LRV) in a narrow bay. The results are cast in terms of two nondimensional numbers: the ratio of friction to local acceleration(δ) and the ratio of the minimum depth over shoals to the maximum depth in the channel(ε). The ratio δ depends on the eddy viscosity and mean depth. For a given eddy viscosity, when ε > 0.5, the along-estuary LRV tends to be vertically sheared and when ε < 0.5, the exchange is laterally sheared. When ε << 1, the structure of the 3 D, depth-integrated, and breadth-averaged LRV changes only slightly as δ increases. For ε values between 0.33 and 0.5, the structure of the 3 D LRV is mainly laterally sheared. In the same ε range, the 3 D and depth-integrated LRV exhibit reversed structures from high to low δ values. In addition, the breadth-averaged LRV weakens the typical twolayered circulation when δ decreases. When ε is 1, the two-layered vertical structure reverses direction, and a three-layered vertical structure develops in the outer bay as δ decreases.     

Observations on the Lateral Structure of Wind-Driven Flows in a Stratified,Semiarid Bay of the Gulf of California

Time series of current velocity profiles and thermistor chains were obtained throughout a cross-bay transect for ~90 days for the purpose of comparing observed wind-driven stratified flows to theory. This study concentrates on the synoptic scale wind and its influence on the bay’s circulation. The maximum water column stratification was 3–4 °C/m throughout the deployment and influenced wind-driven flows. Low-pass filtered flows showed more complicated structures than those expected from theory: a depth-dependent recirculating structure with the along-bay flow over one half of the transect moving in opposite direction to the other half. Analysis of complex empirical orthogonal functions indicated that the first six modes explained 80 % of the flow variability. Therefore, there was no predominantly energetic mode of variability. All modes exhibited a rich spatial structure with vertical and lateral variations. For all modes there was vertically sheared bidirectional flow, as expected from theory, with the largest eigenvector (mode value) asymmetrically influenced by Earth’s rotation and advection of momentum.     

Subtidal flow and its variability at the entrance to a subtropical lagoon

Spatial and temporal variability of the subtidal exchange flow at West Pass, an inlet at the entrance to a subtropical lagoon (St. Andrew Bay, Florida), was studied using moored and towed current velocity profiles and hydrographic data. Towed and hydrographic measurements were captured over one diurnal tidal cycle to determine intratidal and spatial changes in flow. Hydrographic profiles over the tidal cycle showed that tidal straining modified density stratification asymmetrically, thus setting up the observed mean flow within the inlet. During the towed survey, the inlet's mean flow had a two-layer exchange structure that was moderately frictional and weakly influenced by Coriolis accelerations. Moored current profiles revealed the additional contribution to the dynamics from centrifugal accelerations. Along channel residual flows changed between unidirectional and exchange flow, depending on the forcing from the along-estuary wind stress and, to a lesser extent, the spring–neap tidal cycle. Increases in vertical shear in the along channel subtidal flow coincided with neap tides and rain pulses. Lateral subtidal flows showed the influence on the dynamics of centrifugal accelerations through a well-developed two-layer structure modulated in magnitude by the spring–neap tidal cycle.     

Spatial variations of flow structure over estuarine hollows

Observations of the flow field over an elongated hollow (bathymetric depression) in the lower Chesapeake Bay showed tidally asymmetric distributions. Current speed increased over the landward side of the hole during flood tides and decreased in the deepest part of the hollow during ebb tides. A simple conceptual analysis indicated that the presence of a horizontal density gradient can generate the asymmetric spatial variations of flow structure depending on the sign of the horizontal density gradient. When water density decreases downstream, the velocity increases over the downstream edge of the hollow. Conversely when water density increases downstream, the flow decreases over the hollow more than a case without a horizontal density gradient. The conceptual analysis is confirmed by numerical experiments of simplified hollows in steady open channel flows and of an idealized tidal estuary. These hollows also alter the local current field of tidally averaged estuarine exchange flows. The residual depth-averaged currents over a hollow show a two-cell circulation when Coriolis forcing is neglected and an asymmetric two-cell circulation, with a stronger cyclonic eddy, when Coriolis forcing is included.     

Tidal and residual circulation in the St. Andrew Bay system,Florida

Two 24-h surveys were conducted in St. Andrew Bay, Florida, during spring and neap tides to describe the tidal and non-tidal circulation patterns and to determine the factors that affect these patterns. In particular, the effect of tidal forcing in modulating such circulation patterns was explored. Observed velocities were fitted to diurnal and semidiurnal harmonics separating tidal motions from sub-tidal motions. Residual flows were compared with an analytic model that allowed variations in the relative contributions from Coriolis acceleration and friction using the Ekman number. A solution with an Ekman number of 0.04 resembled the observations best and indicated that the hydrodynamics were governed by pressure gradient, Coriolis and friction. Locally, advective accelerations became important around headlands in sub-estuaries in the system. The consistency of the mean pattern from October to March suggests that tides play a minor role in modulating the exchange flow. Deviations from the long-term mean are mainly caused by wind-driven coastal setup and setdown.