Nearshore plume dynamics: Airborne observations and modeling of surf-shelf exchange

该项目通过检查沿海岸地带的暖水和冷水对离岸流的可能改变，促进了对近岸环境的理解。该项目还将检查由不同类型的风和海浪引起的这种变化。研究将仔细审查现有数据和数学模型的结果。分析将把激流行为置于一个考虑改变激流的不同力的框架中。这项研究将为冲浪者和游泳者提供有用的信息，并为沿海地区的管理者确定从破碎的海浪后面到海岸线的海滩地区污染物的命运提供有用的信息。总的来说，这项研究将改善泳滩区的安全，从而造福社会。它将支持一名早期职业科学家和一名博士后学者。本项目将研究与离岸流相关的近岸浮力羽流及其相应的流动。这项研究将探索浮力水和离岸流之间的联系，以及这种联系如何随着不同的分层条件和强迫因素（风、波浪和密度梯度）而变化。研究将结合红外机载和现场观测（在手）与理想的COAWST数值模拟。这项研究将试图确定a)驱动离岸流和b)建立跨大陆架质量交换的羽流浮力对比的相对影响。通过确定这种相对影响，该研究将扩展有关深海相关的离岸流的知识。这项工作试图将数值结果置于考虑弗劳德和辛普森无维数的参数空间的动态框架中。作为更广泛的影响，这项研究将解决浮力对离岸流的影响，这在以前被忽视了。作为更广泛的影响，该研究将包括培训一名博士后学者和一名本科生，并支持一名早期职业科学家。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project advance understanding of the nearshore environment by examining possible modifications to rip currents by warm and cold waters along a coastal strip. The project will examine such modifications also caused by different types of winds and waves. Research will scrutinize data already available and results from a mathematical model. Analysis will place rip-current behavior in a framework that considers different forces that modify the currents. The study will provide helpful information for surfers and swimmers, and for coastal zone managers to determine the fate of pollutants in the beach zone, from behind the breaking waves to the coastline. In general, the study will benefit society by improving safety in the beach zone. It will support one early-career scientist and a post-doctoral scholar. This project will study nearshore buoyant plumes related to rip currents and the corresponding flows. The study will explore the connection between buoyant waters and rip currents, and how the connection may change with different stratification conditions and forcing agents: wind, waves, and density gradients. Research will combine infrared airborne and in-situ observations (in hand) with idealized COAWST numerical modeling. The study will seek to determine the relative influence of plume buoyancy contrasts in a) driving rip currents and b) establishing cross-shelf exchange of mass. By determining such relative influence, the study will expand knowledge on bathymetrically related rip currents. This work seeks to place numerical results in a dynamical framework that considers the parameter space of Froude and Simpson non-dimensional numbers. As Broader Impacts, the study will address the influence of buoyancy effects on rip currents, which has been neglected before. Also as Broader Impacts, the study will include training of one post-doctoral scholar and one undergraduate student, and support for an early-career scientist.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.