Processes contributing to the evolution and destruction of stratification in the Liverpool Bay ROFI |
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Authors: | Eleanor R Howlett Tom P Rippeth John Howarth |
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Institution: | (1) School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, Anglesey, Wales, LL59 5AB, UK;(2) National Oceanography Centre, Joseph Proudman Building, 6 Brownlow Street, Liverpool, L3 5DA, UK |
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Abstract: | Liverpool Bay, a region of freshwater influence subject to semi-diurnal and enduring periods of stratification, is home to
a long-term coastal observatory. The observatory provides a new array of data which include vertical profiles of velocity
from an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler and a high frequency radar system (which provides measurements of surface currents).
Using this dataset in conjunction with an analytical potential energy model that uses advances in the formulation of a freshwater
buoyancy term, the processes controlling stratification can be assessed. The results indicate that a depth-resolving freshwater
buoyancy term should be used for the calculation stratification. Advection, in addition to depth-mean straining, is an important
process affecting the stratification in Liverpool Bay. Specifically, when semi-diurnal stratification occurs, the two terms
are in phase whilst when enduring stratification occurs, they are out of phase. The phase of the advective component, and
thus its influence relative to depth-mean straining, was found to be a function of the vertical variation of the horizontal
density gradient. |
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Keywords: | |
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