I received a National Science Foundation Ocean Science Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to investigate coastal/estuarine interactions in further detail. This project (started January 2013) expands upon the modelling efforts of the PNWTOX project to investigate coastal/estuarine interactions in the Pacific Northwest. I am building upon the UW Coastal Modeling Group tools to include 2-way nested simulations of the coastal estuaries. I am using this tool to investigate the influence of offshore oceanic conditions at the estuary mouths on exchange flow as well as to investigate the influence of along-shore estuaries on one-another. It has been well documented that offshore oceanic conditions can influence estuarine exchange flow, even reversing exchange flow. In specific I will quantitatively study the influence of an offshore river plume (from an along-shore estuary) on estuarine exchange flow.
For more information on this project and related projects see:
Pacficic NorthWest TOXins simulations (PNWTOX simulations)
Sketch of potential coastal/ocean interactions in the Pacific Northwest under varying wind conditions. Blue shows the position of the Columbia River plume. Arrows indicate the surface layer of the estuarine exchange flow for several estauries. When the arrow is pointing towards the ocean, that indicates “traditional” estuarine circulation (outflow at the surface, inflow at depth).