The Prediction Of Wind Driven Coastal Circulation

Download or read book The Prediction of Wind-Driven Coastal Circulation written by J. S. Allen and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The objectives of this project are to understand the dynamics of, and to build a predictive capability for, wind-driven mesoscale oceanographic processes (2-50 km horizontal space scales, 2-10 day time scales) over the continental shelf. The project combines modeling, data assimilation and an observational program off Oregon. The observation program took place in summer 1999. It included surface current measurements from the OSU Coastal Radar System and sub-surface current measurements from three moorings deployed off Newport. Measurements 9f temperature, salinity, and other variables were obtained using a small, towed undulating vehicle on over 20 across-shelf sections during the summer. In addition, hydrographic, bio-optical, velocity and microstructure measurements were made throughout the water column over the shelf during a three week cruise. These hydrographic measurements give new information on the complex three-dimensional structure of the shelf circulation that results from interactions of the flow with Heceta Bank. High-resolution, three-dimensional coastal ocean circulation models were forced by buoy observed winds and heat flux and also by fluxes from a high resolution coastal atmospheric model, nested in an operational large-scale weather prediction model. New techniques to assimilate surface current measurements from land-based radars in the coastal ocean models have been developed and applied.