Energetics of Estuarine and Coastal Flow

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This project will conduct a number of theoretical and numerical analyses of coastal and estuarine circulation focused on the mechanical energy budget. Mechanical energy (potential and kinetic) forms a powerful conceptual integrating tool between atmospheric, tidal, and river forcing of coastal flows, and the resulting vertical fluxes (both by overturning circulation and by turbulent mixing). However, our current understanding of the functioning of the energy budget is severely limited in coastal and estuarine flows by the combined effects of irregular domains, open boundaries, and highly variable forcing (and hence the lack of a steady state). The work will build on the PI's recent work on energy budgets in estuaries and on the Washington and Oregon continental shelf. This will lead to a greatly improved theoretical understanding of how coastal upwelling and the estuarine exchange flow work, and how sensitive they may be to changes in forcing conditions. Simulations will be done in both idealized domains and for realistic hindcasts of the WA/OR shelf including the Columbia River and Puget Sound. Broader Impacts: The results of this work will be of benefit to the coastal and estuarine physics community by providing (i) a better theoretical understanding of energy budgets, and (ii) improved numerical tools to use with ROMS for energy analysis. The research will also increase our understanding of coastal upwelling, and of the linkages between shelf and estuarine systems, and hence the ecosystems which rely on these. This work will train a new graduate student in coastal and estuarine physical oceanography. It will support computational infrastructure that is used by many students at the UW School of Oceanography as a critical aspect of their research. It will also support a 5-week summer school.