Evolution of the Cape Henry front |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">G?O?MarmorinoEmail author C?L?Trump |
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Institution: | (1) School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469-5706, USA |
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Abstract: | The evolution of a front that forms inshore of the main Chesapeake Bay plume, near Cape Henry, Virginia, United States, was
observed during a period of downwelling-favorable winds in May 1999. A novel aspect of this study was the use of an underway,
horizontally-oriented acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) to map the front and to study its evolving shape. Measurements
made during flood tide show the front forming about 2 km from shore and then advancing shoreward (at about 20 cm s−1) over dense, inshore water. Measurements made while anchored 1 km from shore show the surface salinity increasing during
ebb tide, then abruptly decreasing during flood tide as the front moves inshore. To account for this cycle of events, a conceptual
model is proposed in which dense water upwells to the surface during ebb tide near Cape Henry, helping to set the stage for
frontal formation on the flood. The cyclic recurrence of this Cape Henry front so close to the mouth of the bay may provide
a mechanism for recirculating estuarine material that would otherwise be transported southward in the coastal buoyancy current. |
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