• Login
    About WHOAS
    View Item 
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering (AOP&E)
    • View Item
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering (AOP&E)
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of WHOASCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywordsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywords

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Numerical modeling of an estuary : a comprehensive skill assessment

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    2004JC002691.pdf (2.461Mb)
    Date
    2005-05-04
    Author
    Warner, John C.  Concept link
    Geyer, W. Rockwell  Concept link
    Lerczak, James A.  Concept link
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/464
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JC002691
    DOI
    10.1029/2004JC002691
    Keyword
     Estuary; Model skill assessment; Hudson River 
    Abstract
    Numerical simulations of the Hudson River estuary using a terrain-following, three-dimensional model (Regional Ocean Modeling System, ROMS) are compared with an extensive set of timeseries and spatially resolved measurements over a 43-day period with large variations in tidal forcing and river discharge. The model is particularly effective at reproducing the observed temporal variations in both the salinity and current structure, including tidal, spring-neap, and river discharge induced variability. Large observed variations in stratification between neap and spring tides are captured qualitatively and quantitatively by the model. The observed structure and variations of the longitudinal salinity gradient are also well reproduced. The most notable discrepancy between the model and the data is in the vertical salinity structure. While the surface-to-bottom salinity difference is well reproduced, the stratification in the model tends to extend all the way to the water surface, whereas the observations indicate a distinct pycnocline and a surface mixed layer. Because the southern boundary condition is located near the mouth the estuary, the salinity within the domain is particularly sensitive to the specification of salinity at the boundary. A boundary condition for the horizontal salinity gradient, based on the local value of salinity, is developed to incorporate physical processes beyond the open boundary not resolved by the model. Model results are sensitive to the specification of the bottom roughness length and vertical stability functions, insofar as they influence the intensity of vertical mixing. The results only varied slightly between different turbulence closure methods of k-ε, k-ω, and k-kl.
    Description
    Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2005. 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 110 (2005): C05001, doi:10.1029/2004JC002691.
    Collections
    • Sediment Transport
    • Physical Oceanography (PO)
    • Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering (AOP&E)
    Suggested Citation
    Journal of Geophysical Research 110 (2005): C05001
     

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Skill assessment for coupled biological/physical models of marine systems 

      Stow, Craig A.; Jolliff, Jason; McGillicuddy, Dennis J.; Doney, Scott C.; Allen, J. Icarus; Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M.; Rose, Kenneth A.; Wallhead, Philip (2008-03-04)
      Coupled biological/physical models of marine systems serve many purposes including the synthesis of information, hypothesis generation, and as a tool for numerical experimentation. However, marine system models are ...
    • Thumbnail

      Marine ecosystem dynamics and biogeochemical cycling in the Community Earth System Model [CESM1(BGC)] : comparison of the 1990s with the 2090s under the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios 

      Moore, J. Keith; Lindsay, Keith; Doney, Scott C.; Long, Matthew C.; Misumi, Kazuhiro (American Meteorological Society, 2013-12-01)
      The authors compare Community Earth System Model results to marine observations for the 1990s and examine climate change impacts on biogeochemistry at the end of the twenty-first century under two future scenarios ...
    • Thumbnail

      Progress and challenges in coupled hydrodynamic-ecological estuarine modeling 

      Ganju, Neil K.; Brush, Mark J.; Rashleigh, Brenda; Aretxabaleta, Alfredo L.; del Barrio, Pilar; Grear, Jason S.; Harris, Lora A.; Lake, Samuel J.; McCardell, Grant; O’Donnell, James; Ralston, David K.; Signell, Richard P.; Testa, Jeremy M.; Vaudrey, Jamie M. P. (Springer, 2015-07-07)
      Numerical modeling has emerged over the last several decades as a widely accepted tool for investigations in environmental sciences. In estuarine research, hydrodynamic and ecological models have moved along parallel tracks ...
    All Items in WHOAS are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. WHOAS also supports the use of the Creative Commons licenses for original content.
    A service of the MBLWHOI Library | About WHOAS
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Privacy Policy
    Core Trust Logo