Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
4533655 | Continental Shelf Research | 2009 | 11 Pages |
Abstract
River plume front-generated internal solitons play an important role in the interaction between the plume and coastal waters. The internal solitons drive a non-harmonic velocity field, resulting in a horizontal transport that carries plume water seaward and redistributes nutrients and sediments. In this study, we present observations of internal solitons generated at the Columbia River plume front that separates the new, tidal plume, older plume and coastal waters. Scale analyses suggest that the plume front-generated internal solitons are highly non-linear waves, and their dynamic properties do not conform to any weakly non-linear theory. Thus, a high-order Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) theory is used to analyze the internal solitons. The comparison between theoretical values and cruise data shows that the high-order KdV model is much better than the weakly non-linear theories for prediction of the soliton dynamic parameters. Based on the model, we develop theoretical and numerical solutions of the soliton-induced upper layer horizontal transport and Lagrangian water parcel transport distance, which shows that the water particle drift, during the internal soliton passage, is as far as 1Â km, and demonstrates the role of the internal solitons on the exchange between the plume and ambient coastal water. Energy fluxes caused by the internal solitons are estimated using the high-order KdV theory. The leading soliton fluxes 2.0Ã103Â WÂ mâ1 per unit crest length, and carries energy of 4.2Ã105Â JÂ mâ1. The total energy carried by the eight internal solitons is 1.6Ã106Â JÂ mâ1, about 70% of the total frontal energy.
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Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Geology
Authors
Jiayi Pan, David A. Jay,