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A numerical study of horizontal dispersion in a macro tidal basin

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Abstract

Tidal circulation in Cobscook Bay, a macro tidal basin, is simulated using the three-dimensional, nonlinear, finite element ocean model, QUODDY_dry. Numerical particles are released from various transects in the bay at different tidal phases and tracked for several tidal cycles. Initially, nearby particles in the main tidal channel experience a great deal of spreading and straining, and after a few tidal cycles, they are separated in different parts of the bay. The fundamental mechanism for particle dispersion is the chaotic advection that arises from long tidal excursions passing through many residual eddies. A loosely correlated, inverse relationship between the two dimensionless parameters, ν (the ratio of the residual current to the tidal current) and λ (the ratio of the tidal excursion to the main topographic scale), can be constructed for large values of ν. Several Lagrangian statistical measures are used to quantify and distinguish dispersion regimes in different parts of Cobscook Bay. It is found that the effective Lagrangian dispersion coefficient can be estimated using the product of the magnitude of residual currents and the tidal excursion.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. David Greenberg (Bedford Institute of Oceanography) greatly for his generosity in sharing the ocean model QUODDY_dry and for his advice in using the model. Mr. Stephen Cousins (the University of Maine) and Mr. Randy Losier (St. Andrews Biological Station) provided frequent technical assistance to enable computations in this study. We thank Dr. David Brooks (Texas A&M University) for insightful discussions on the circulation in Cobscook Bay and Dr. Emmanuel Boss (the University of Maine) for valuable suggestions on Lagrangian statistics. The digitized topography of Cobscook Bay was provided by Dr. David Brooks. The drifter data were processed by Heidi Leighton and Will Hopkins at the Cobscook Bay Resource Center. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on the manuscript. This study was supported by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection grant (MOSAC06-02) to the University of Maine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 04469-5706, USA

    Danya Xu & Huijie Xue

  2. Center for Environmental Sensing and Modeling (CENSAM) Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), S16-05-08, 3 Science Drive 2, Singapore, 117543, Singapore

    Danya Xu

Authors
  1. Danya Xu
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  2. Huijie Xue
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Correspondence to Huijie Xue.

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Responsible Editor: Tal Ezer

This article is part of the Topical Collection on 2nd International Workshop on Modelling the Ocean 2010

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Xu, D., Xue, H. A numerical study of horizontal dispersion in a macro tidal basin. Ocean Dynamics 61, 623–637 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-010-0371-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-010-0371-6

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