Abstract
Vessel-mounted ADCP measurements were conducted to describe the transverse structure of flow between the two headland tips in Khuran Channel, south of Iran (26° 45′ N), where the highest tidal velocities in spring tides were ~ 1.8 m/s. Current profiles were obtained using a 614.4 kHz TRDI WorkHorse Broadband ADCP over nine repetitions of three cross-channel transects during one semidiurnal tidal cycle. The 2.2-km-long transects ran north/south across the channel. A least-square fit to semidiurnal, quarter-diurnal, and sixth diurnal harmonics was used to separate the tidal signals from the observed flow. Spatial gradients showed that the greatest lateral shears and convergences were found over the northern channel and near the northern headland tip due to very sharp bathymetric changes in this area. Contrary to the historical assumption, the across-channel momentum balance in the Khuran Channel was ageostrophic. The current study represents one of the few examples reported where the lateral friction influences the across-channel momentum balance.
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Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the help of Dr. Kenneth H. Brink and Dr. Robert C. Beardsley which kindly provided their esteem comments. This work is to Maziar Khosravi’s Ph.D. thesis. He has benefited from the POGO training courses and sends his thank for their supports. Thanks must also go to the Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences for providing the instrumentations. We also highly appreciate the comments by anonymous reviewers that greatly improved the presentation of this manuscript.
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Khosravi, M., Siadatmousavi, S.M., Vennell, R. et al. The transverse dynamics of flow in a tidal channel within a greater strait. Ocean Dynamics 68, 239–254 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-017-1127-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-017-1127-3