THE LOW-FREQUENCY RESIDUAL CIRCULATION IN KNIGHT INLET, BRITISH-COLUMBIA

Many aspects of the low-frequency response of a stratified inlet have not been previously observed because of the lack of simultaneous obser vations of runoff, wind, currents, and density over the entire body of water. Month-long observations throughout the water column of Knight Inlet, British Columbia, both outside and inside the sill, during the spring (1988) and summer (1989) runoff regimes are presented. These da ta are detided with harmonic analysis and used to investigate the subd iurnal residual response with respect to the wind, runoff, and deep wa ter renewal. Near the surface, response to alongchannel winds was foun d to dominate with a coherence squared of greater than 0.8. The cohere nce was therefore used to directly estimate the wind influence, and de winded residuals were formed by subtracting these estimates from the d etided records. Structures were found in the dewinded residuals that c orrespond to a near-surface estuarine circulation vertically nested wi th deep water renewal.