HR: 14:45h
AN: OS23G-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Transport due to Internal Waves in the San Pedro Bay Region
AU: * Fringer, O B
EM: fringer@stanford.edu
AF: Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4020, United States
AU: * Fringer, O B
EM: fringer@stanford.edu
AF: Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4042, United States
AU: Macumber, S J
EM: macumber@stanford.edu
AF: Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4042, United States
AU: Boehm, A B
EM: aboehm@stanford.edu
AF: Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4020, United States
AB: Field measurements and simulations of internal waves in the San Pedro Bay region indicate that they are generated at the shelf break where the topographic slope matches that of the internal wave characteristics. This internal wave energy radiates away from and onto the shelf in the form of first-mode waves, which steepen into highly nonlinear waves as they propagate into shallow waters. Like surface waves, while the Eulerian mean (time-average at a point) internal-wave induced velocity is typically small, the Lagrangian mean, which is also known as the Stokes drift (the time-averaged velocity following a fluid particle), is not necessarily small and has important implications for transport of pollutants and other tracers on the continental shelf. Using the nonhydrostatic model SUNTANS, we compute the internal wave field in the San Pedro Bay Region and study the associated transport of tracers due to the internal wave-induced Stokes drift. By simulating the flow with and without stratification, we show that the barotropic tides have a minimal effect on transport, while internal waves induce a complex three-dimensional Stokes drift that results in significant depth-dependent tracer transport throughout the region. The results demonstrate that the internal wave field in coastal shelf waters is an important contributor to cross-shelf transport, both in the short term due to the shoaling of highly nonlinear waves in shallow waters, and in the long term due to the Stokes drift of the weakly nonlinear internal wave field throughout the continental shelf.
UR: http:suntans.stanford.edu
DE: 3285 Wave propagation (0689, 2487, 4275, 4455, 6934)
DE: 4455 Nonlinear waves, shock waves, solitons (0689, 2487, 3280, 3285, 4275, 6934, 7851, 7852)
DE: 4534 Hydrodynamic modeling
DE: 4544 Internal and inertial waves
DE: 4562 Topographic/bathymetric interactions
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly