Analysis of Coastal Land-Air-Sea Interaction (CLASI) Experimental Data

Abstract

Shallow coastal water respond quickly to changes in the local surface wind fields (direction, strength and shoreline alignment), gen""erating local seas and currents and modifying incoming sell. The local, coastal wind field becomes even more complex when there are"" prominent orographic features (headlands, valley, canyon and bluffs, for example). Sparse in-situ wind observatons along the coast" are generally insufficient to provide a) good adescription of the local wind field and it response characteristics to changing weat"her patterns andb) representative dat useful as input to operational weather prediction models such as COAMPS, the Navy s premier co""uple ocean-atmosphere model. Operation wave, current and sediment transport models depend strongly on accurate surface wind fields t"o describe the near coastal ocean dynamics for these local scales of variability on grid sizes of 10 s of meters rather than 100 s t"o 1000 s of meters. Surface wind fields from COAMPS do not match these scales, typically running at a much coarser 1-3 km resolution" and utilize open ocean drag and flux formulations for its boundary layer closure. This proposal covers the data analysis of a pilot" study of the variability of coastal winds in Monterey Bay, CA. Measurements and observations from two small, coastal vessels equipe""d with air-sea interaction sensors, acquisition of high resolution satellite radar imagery will be analyzed to understand the variab"ility of the drage coefficient from the shore through the surf zone into shallow water and utimately into deep water. The study will be conducted over an 18-month period.

Document Details

Document Type
DoD Grant Award
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2017
Source ID
N000141712800

Entities

People

  • Hans Graber

Organizations

  • Office of Naval Research
  • United States Navy
  • University of Miami

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Coastal Oceanography
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers

Technology Areas

  • Space