A. Kapolnai et al., CIRCULATION, MIXING, AND EXCHANGE PROCESSES IN THE VICINITY OF TIDAL INLETS - A NUMERICAL STUDY, J GEO RES-O, 101(C6), 1996, pp. 14253-14268
The circulation in the vicinity of an idealized tidal inlet connecting
a continental shelf and a coastal sound is examined. The circulation
is forced by an M(2) tide and a weakly buoyant discharge. The buoyant
discharge forms a plume in the coastal ocean and induces a distinct an
ticyclonic circulation at the plume edge that is maintained throughout
the tidal cycle. We focus on the plume's onset and its evolution over
5-10 tidal cycles. Over the timescales considered, the plume was roug
hly circular, slightly skewed in the along-coast direction. The model
solution yielded high vertical Ekman numbers E(v) similar to O(5) in t
he vicinity of the inlet mouth, decreasing seaward from the inlet to a
n order of magnitude smaller (E(v) similar to 0.25) at the seaward edg
e of the plume. Passive particles released in the region seaward of th
e inlet mouth were used to describe the exchange between the coastal r
egion and the inlet. A marked asymmetry between ebb and hood hows is o
bserved in the vicinity of the inlet, with jet-like ebbing currents an
d weaker potential-flow-like flooding currents. Over a tidal cycle, ne
t exchanges between the coastal ocean and the inlet are found to be sp
atially and temporally dependent; that is, particle trajectories depen
d on the release point and the time of the release in the tidal cycle.
The near,inlet residual circulation shows significant differences in
the absence of stratification.