Wave-driven along-channel subtidal flows in a well-mixed ocean inlet

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Date
2014-05-20
Authors
Wargula, Anna E.
Raubenheimer, Britt
Elgar, Steve
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DOI
10.1002/2014JC009839
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Inlet
Wind waves
Currents
Radiation stress
Abstract
Observations of waves, flows, and water levels collected for a month in and near a long, narrow, shallow (∼ 3000 m long, 1000 m wide, and 5 m deep), well-mixed ocean inlet are used to evaluate the subtidal (periods > 30 h) along-inlet momentum balance. Maximum tidal flows in the inlet were about 1.5 m/s and offshore significant wave heights ranged from about 0.5 to 2.5 m. The dominant terms in the local (across the km-wide ebb shoal) along-inlet momentum balance are the along-inlet pressure gradient, the bottom stress, and the wave radiation-stress gradient. Estimated nonlinear advective acceleration terms roughly balance in the channel. Onshore radiation-stress gradients owing to breaking waves enhance the flood flows into the inlet, especially during storms.
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Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 119 (2014): 2987–3001, doi:10.1002/2014JC009839.
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Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 119 (2014): 2987–3001
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