Satellite along-track sea surface height (SSH) and multisatellite sea surface temperature (SST) maps are assimilated in a coastal ocean circulation model off Oregon. The study period is June–October 2005, featuring intensive separation of the coastal upwelling jets in the eddy-dominated coastal transition zone (CTZ). The data assimilation (DA) system combines...
Sixty-day simulations of flow on the Oregon continental shelf are performed using the Blumberg and Mellor sigma coordinate, primitive equation model. The model is two-dimensional (an across-shelf section) with high spatial resolution and realistic shelf topography. Forcing consists of surface heat flux, either hourly or low-pass filtered wind stress, and...
Time-dependent upwelling on the Oregon continental shelf is studied with a two-dimensional approximation, that is, spatial variations across-shelf and with depth, using the Blumberg–Mellor, finite-difference, stratified, primitive equation model. The time-dependent response of a coastal ocean at rest to constant, upwelling favorable, wind stress is examined. Topography and stratification representative...
A linearized baroclinic, spectral-in-time tidal inverse model has been developed for assimilation of surface currents from coast-based high-frequency (HF) radars. Representer functions obtained as a part of the generalized inverse solution show that for superinertial flows information from the surface velocity measurements propagates to depth along wave characteristics, allowing internal...
The effects of alongshore variations in bottom topography on wind-stress-forced barotropic motion over a continental shelf and slope are studied. An idealized channel model with a weakly sloping bottom and with small-amplitude alongshore variations in topography is utilized. Perturbation methods and numerical inversion of Fourier transforms are employed. The effect...
Case history analysis, cross spectra and multiple regression analysis have been used in a study of low-pass filtered sea level records from the Pacific mainland coast of Mexico in 1971 and 1973–75. During the summer-fall season (May–October), sea level variability is characterized by strong alongshore coherence and nondispersive, poleward phase...
A study of swash zone sediment transport was conducted at Gleneden
Beach, Oregon during February 25-28, 1994. The data collected included suspended
sediment concentration (SSC), sea surface elevation, and velocity (initially 4 and 8
cm above the bed) at three cross-shore locations within the swash zone spanning high
tides. Ensemble...
As part of a study of the large-scale response of coastal sea level to atmospheric forcing along the west coast of North America during June–September 1973, Halliwell and Allen calculate space- and time-lagged cross-correlation coefficients Rτζ between adjusted sea level ζ at fixed alongshore locations ζ(y0) and the alongshore component...
An analysis is presented of the low-frequency fluctuations [ω<0.6 cycle per day (cpd)] of the currents near the Oregon coast, based on the 1972 and 1973 measurements from moored current meters in CUE-1 and CUE-2. Let u and v denote the eastward (approximately onshore) and northward (approximately alongshore) components of...
A two-layer model with an idealized continental shelf and slope bottom topography is utilized to study some properties of the response of stratified coastal regions to meteorological forcing with variations in the alongshore direction. The model is such that the coastline is straight, there are no alongshore variations in the...