Collaborative Research: The internal Surfzone: Wave-averaged circulation driven by nonlinear internal waves shoaling over spatially-varying bathymetry

沿海地区非线性内波的运输通过浮游生物和营养物的运输与生物海洋学有很强的跨学科联系；沉积物输运的地质和地球化学海洋学；沿海工程/管理通过运输和分散人为物质，如污水排放口的污水。本研究的总体目标是了解从非线性内波到平均流的动量通量的动力学控制；理想条件下浅滩内波驱动平均流的规模和结构以及与浅滩内波相关的净质量输运的大小和空间结构。尽管非线性内波在沿海海洋中普遍存在，但很少有三维研究包括地形在正常传播方向上的变异性。这项研究是第一次尝试量化由内波强迫的运输路径和由内波产生的平均流量，预计将产生广泛适用于跨学科海洋学和海岸管理的结果和方法。该项目将支持一名博士后研究员和一名研究生的专业发展。该方法基于具有自适应网格功能的最先进的三维非流体静力数值模型。此外，之前在马萨诸塞湾收集的数据也将被分析。这是第一个系统地解决非线性内波浅滩在二维变化水深上驱动的平均流量和输运的研究。该研究包括两个部分：一个是建模部分，用于研究在各种日益现实的情况下的动量转移和水质量运输，另一个是数据分析部分，该部分将使用过去16年在马萨诸塞湾进行的一系列实验中获得的广泛数据集来考虑同样的问题。建模组件将用于帮助解释数据。该模型（分层海洋模型与自适应细化）的开发部分资金来自之前的国家科学基金会提案，是一个最先进的三维非流体静力分层海洋模型，它采用自适应网格细化来有效地利用计算资源，在必要时根据需要提高分辨率。

Transport by nonlinear internal waves in coastal regions has strong interdisciplinary ties to biological oceanography through transport of plankton and nutrients; geological and geochemical oceanography via transport of sediments; and coastal engineering/management via transport and dispersion of anthropogenic materials such as effluent from sewage outfalls. The overall objectives of this study are to understand the dynamics governing the flux of momentum from shoaling nonlinear internal waves to mean currents; the scale and structure of mean flows driven by shoaling internal waves under idealized conditions; and the magnitude and spatial structure of the net mass transport associated with the shoaling internal waves. Despite the ubiquitous nature of nonlinear internal waves in the coastal ocean, very few three dimensional studies exist that include variability of the topography in the direction normal to propagation. This study represents the first attempt to quantify the transport pathways forced by internal waves and the mean flows generated by them and it is expected to produce results and methodologies with broad applicability in interdisciplinary oceanography and coastal management. The project will support the professional development of a postdoctoral researcher and a graduate student. The approach is based on a state of the art, three-dimensional, non-hydrostatic numerical model with adaptive mesh capabilities. In addition, data previously collected in Massachusetts Bay during previous studies will be analyzed. This is the first study to systematically address the mean flow and transport driven by nonlinear internal waves shoaling over bathymetry varying in two dimensions. The study comprises two components: a modeling component used to study the transfer of momentum and water mass transport in a variety of situations of increasing realism, and a data-analysis component which will consider the same problem using the extensive dataset available from a series of experiments conducted in Massachusetts Bay over the last 16 years. The modeling component will be used to aid in interpreting the data. The model (Stratified Ocean Model with Adaptive Refinement), developed in part with funding from previous National Science Foundation proposals, is a state-of-the-art three-dimensional non-hydrostatic stratified ocean model which employs adaptive mesh refinement to effectively use the computational resources, increasing resolution on demand where necessary.