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.