Data and numerical methods for determining the dynamics and kinematics of Newark Bay, NJ

Abstract

These observational data and numerical methods were used to investigate the subtidal salt balance of Newark Bay, a sub-estuarine network connected to the Hudson River estuary through New York Harbor. The moored data were collected in 2008 by Chant and Sommerfield, and in 2016 by Corlett, Geyer, and Ralston. Corlett devised the included numerical methods. Shipboard measurements of the vertical salinity profile near each mooring were used to reconstruct the tidally-varying vertical salinity profile from near-bed and near-surface salinity measurements at each mooring. The effects of tidal processes, such as frontal advection, on the exchange flow were investigated by applying the isohaline total exchange flow (TEF) framework to the mooring-based observations in multiple reaches of the estuarine network. In addition, a TEF-based salt balance was derived for the purpose of directly comparing the TEF framework with the standard Eulerian framework.