Vertical Mixing and Horizontal Transport in Stratified Flow at a Near Coastal Site

Abstract

Frequent stratification (and restratification) episodes, strong along-shore tidal flows and variable local bathymetry characterize near coastal environments. These features are thought to control vertical mixing and horizontal transport in such near shore regions. To better understand this environment, a dye-dispersion study was performed in an area off San Clemente Island, CA-in March 1999, along with detailed measurements of the flow and vertical mixing. The major result of this work is that observed horizontal dispersion rates of towed fluorometer data are about 2 orders of magnitude larger than generally accepted values. Even when scale dependant dispersion (Stacey et. al, 2000) is applied to the problem, the coefficient of the dispersion term are 0.08 cm(exp 2/3)/s, substantially larger than observed values.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2000
Accession Number
ADA395797

Entities

People

  • Deanna Sereno
  • Jeffrey D. Musak
  • Mark T. Stacey
  • Stephen G. Monismith
  • Thomas M. Powell

Organizations

  • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
  • Boundaries
  • Boundary Layer
  • British Columbia
  • Buoyancy
  • Data Sets
  • Detection
  • Ecology
  • Engineering
  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Kinetic Energy
  • Layers
  • Measurement
  • Near Field
  • Stratified Fluids
  • Transport Ships
  • Underwater Acoustics

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Mathematics or Statistics
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Oceanography.