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USGS2001

Sources of global warming in upper ocean temperature during El Niño

Global average sea surface temperature (SST) from 40°S to 60°N fluctuates ±0.3°C on interannual period scales, with global warming (cooling) during El Niño (La Niña). About 90% of the global warming during El Niño occurs in the tropical global ocean from 20°S to 20°N, half because of large SST anomalies in the tropical Pacific associated with El Niño and the other half because of warm SST anomalies occurring over &sim;80% of the tropical global ocean. From examination of National Centers for Environmental Prediction [ Kalnay et al. , 1996] and Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set [ Woodruff et al. , 1993] reanalyses, tropical global warming during El Niño is associated with higher troposphere moisture content and cloud cover, with reduced trade wind intensity occurring during the onset phase of El Niño. During this onset phase the tropical global average diabatic heat storage tendency in the layer above the main pycnocline is 1–3 W m −2 above normal. Its principal source is a reduction in the poleward Ekman heat flux out of the tropical ocean of 2–5 W m −2 . Subsequently, peak tropical global warming during El Niño is dissipated by an increase in the flux of latent heat to the troposphere of 2–5 W m −2 , with reduced shortwave and longwave radiative fluxes in response to increased cloud cover tending to cancel each other. In the extratropical global ocean the reduction in poleward Ekman heat flux out of the tropics during the onset of El Niño tends to be balanced by reduction in the flux of latent heat to the troposphere. Thus global warming and cooling during Earth's internal mode of interannual climate variability arise from fluctuations in the global hydrological balance, not the global radiation balance. Since it occurs in the absence of extraterrestrial and anthropogenic forcing, global warming on decadal, interdecadal, and centennial period scales may also occur in association with Earth's internal modes of climate variability on those scales.

Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans↗

USGS2003

Sources of global warming of the upper ocean on decadal period scales

Recent studies find global climate variability in the upper ocean and lower atmosphere during the twentieth century dominated by quasi-biennial, interannual, quasi-decadal and interdecadal signals. The quasi-decadal signal in upper ocean temperature undergoes global warming/cooling of ???0.1??C, similar to that occuring with the interannual signal (i.e., El Nin??o-Southern Oscillation), both signals dominated by global warming/cooling in the tropics. From the National Centers for Environmental Prediction troposphere reanalysis and Scripps Institution of Oceanography upper ocean temperature reanalysis we examine the quasi-decadal global tropical diabetic heat storage (DHS) budget from 1975 to 2000. We find the anomalous DHS warming tendency of 0.3-0.9 W m-2 driven principally by a downward global tropical latent-plus-sensible heat flux anomaly into the ocean, overwhelming the tendency by weaker upward shortwave-minus-longwave heat flux anomaly to drive an anomalous DHS cooling tendency. During the peak quasi-decadal warming the estimated dissipation of DHS anomaly of 0.2-0.5 W m-2 into the deep ocean and a similar loss to the overlying atmosphere through air-sea heat flux anomaly are balanced by a decrease in the net poleward Ekman heat advection out of the tropics of 0.4-0.7 W m-2. This scenario is nearly the opposite of that accounting for global tropical warming during the El Nin??o. These diagnostics confirm that even though the global quasi-decadal signal is phase-locked to the 11-year signal in the Sun's surface radiative forcing of ???0.1 W m-2, the anomalous global tropical DHS tendency cannot be driven by it directly.

Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans↗

USGS1996

Open-ocean boundary conditions from interior data: Local and remote forcing of Massachusetts Bay

Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays form a semienclosed coastal basin that opens onto the much larger Gulf of Maine. Subtidal circulation in the bay is driven by local winds and remotely driven flows from the gulf. The local-wind forced flow is estimated with a regional shallow water model driven by wind measurements. The model uses a gravity wave radiation condition along the open-ocean boundary. Results compare reasonably well with observed currents near the coast. In some offshore regions, however, modeled flows are an order of magnitude less energetic than the data. Strong flows are observed even during periods of weak local wind forcing. Poor model-data comparisons are attributable, at least in part, to open-ocean boundary conditions that neglect the effects of remote forcing. Velocity measurements from within Massachusetts Bay are used to estimate the remotely forced component of the flow. The data are combined with shallow water dynamics in an inverse-model formulation that follows the theory of Bennett and McIntosh [1982], who considered tides. We extend their analysis to consider the subtidal response to transient forcing. The inverse model adjusts the a priori open-ocean boundary condition, thereby minimizing a combined measure of model-data misfit and boundary condition adjustment. A “consistency criterion” determines the optimal trade-off between the two. The criterion is based on a measure of plausibility for the inverse solution. The “consistent” inverse solution reproduces 56% of the average squared variation in the data. The local-wind-driven flow alone accounts for half of the model skill. The other half is attributable to remotely forced flows from the Gulf of Maine. The unexplained 44% comes from measurement errors and model errors that are not accounted for in the analysis.

Massachusetts↗

USGS2011

Equilibrium shoreline response of a high wave energy beach

Four years of beach elevation surveys at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California, are used to extend an existing equilibrium shoreline change model, previously calibrated with fine sand and moderate energy waves, to medium sand and higher-energy waves. The shoreline, characterized as the cross-shore location of the mean high water contour, varied seasonally by between 30 and 60 m, depending on the alongshore location. The equilibrium shoreline change model relates the rate of horizontal shoreline displacement to the hourly wave energy E and the wave energy disequilibrium, the difference between E and the equilibrium wave energy that would cause no change in the present shoreline location. Values for the model shoreline response coefficients are tuned to fit the observations in 500 m alongshore segments and averaged over segments where the model has good skill and the estimated effects of neglected alongshore sediment transport are relatively small. Using these representative response coefficients for 0.3 mm sand from Ocean Beach and driving the model with much lower-energy winter waves observed at San Onofre Beach (also 0.3 mm sand) in southern California, qualitatively reproduces the small seasonal shoreline fluctuations at San Onofre. This consistency suggests that the shoreline model response coefficients depend on grain size and may be constant, and thus transportable, between sites with similar grain size and different wave climates. The calibrated model response coefficients predict that for equal fluctuations in wave energy, changes in shoreline location on a medium-grained (0.3 mm) beach are much smaller than on a previously studied fine-grained (0.2 mm) beach. Copyright ?? 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.

Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans↗

USGS2012

Characterization of tropospheric desert aerosols at solar wavelengths by multispectral radiometry from Landsat

Characteristics of tropospheric desert aerosols are derived by comparing nadir spectral reflectivities computed from the radiative transfer models with reflectivities measured from Landsat. Over the ocean, reflectivities are compared, but over land the comparison is carried out by determining the ratios of the nadir reflectivity of the surface-atmosphere system over heavy aerosol concentration to the reflectivity of the underlying surface. This remote sensing technique is found to be a sensitive approach for measuring n 2 , the imaginary part of the refractive index. The desert aerosols under study, in the Iran and Pakistan area, are essentially pure scatterers, inasmuch as an n 2 value of 0.001±0.001 was determined for each of the four Landsat spectral bands, that is, for a spectral interval from 0.5 to 1.1 μm.

Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans↗

USGS2011

Pressure-gradient-driven nearshore circulation on a beach influenced by a large inlet-tidal shoal system

The nearshore circulation induced by a focused pattern of surface gravity waves is studied at a beach adjacent to a major inlet with a large ebb tidal shoal. Using a coupled wave and wave-averaged nearshore circulation model, it is found that the nearshore circulation is significantly affected by the heterogeneous wave patterns caused by wave refraction over the ebb tidal shoal. The model is used to predict waves and currents during field experiments conducted near the mouth of San Francisco Bay and nearby Ocean Beach. The field measurements indicate strong spatial variations in current magnitude and direction and in wave height and direction along Ocean Beach and across the ebb tidal shoal. Numerical simulations suggest that wave refraction over the ebb tidal shoal causes wave focusing toward a narrow region at Ocean Beach. Due to the resulting spatial variation in nearshore wave height, wave-induced setup exhibits a strong alongshore nonuniformity, resulting in a dramatic change in the pressure field compared to a simulation with only tidal forcing. The analysis of momentum balances inside the surf zone shows that, under wave conditions with intensive wave focusing, the alongshore pressure gradient associated with alongshore nonuniform wave setup can be a dominant force driving circulation, inducing heterogeneous alongshore currents. Pressure-gradient- forced alongshore currents can exhibit flow reversals and flow convergence or divergence, in contrast to the uniform alongshore currents typically caused by tides or homogeneous waves.

California↗

USGS2015

Natural and unnatural oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico

When wind speeds are 2 – 10 m s −1 , reflective contrasts in the ocean surface make oil slicks visible to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) under all sky conditions. Neural network analysis of satellite SAR images quantified the magnitude and distribution of surface oil in the Gulf of Mexico from persistent, natural seeps and from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) discharge. This analysis identified 914 natural oil seep zones across the entire Gulf of Mexico in pre-2010 data. Their &sim;0.1 µm slicks covered an aggregated average of 775 km 2 . Assuming an average volume of 77.5 m 3 over an 8 – 24 h lifespan per oil slick, the floating oil indicates a surface flux of 2.5 – 9.4 × 10 4 m 3 y −1 . Oil from natural slicks was regionally concentrated: 68%, 25%, 7%, and <1% of the total was observed in the NW, SW, NE and SE Gulf, respectively. This reflects differences in basin history and hydrocarbon generation. SAR images from 2010 showed that the 87-day DWH discharge produced a surface-oil footprint fundamentally different from background seepage, with an average ocean area of 11,200 km 2 (SD 5,028) and a volume of 22,600 m 3 (SD 5,411). Peak magnitudes of oil were detected during equivalent, &sim;14-day intervals around 23 May and 18 June, when wind speeds remained <5 m s −1 . Over this interval, aggregated volume of floating oil decreased by 21%; area covered increased by 49% ( p  < .1), potentially altering its ecological impact. The most likely causes were increased applications of dispersant and surface burning operations.

Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans↗

USGS2003

A delayed action oscillator shared by biennial, interannual, and decadal signals in the Pacific Basin

Biennial, interannual, and decadal signals in the Pacific basin are observed to share patterns and evolution in covarying sea surface temperature (SST), 18??C isotherm depth (Z18), zonal surface wind (ZSW), and wind stress curl (WSC) anomalies from 1955 to 1999. Each signal has warm SST anomalies propagating slowly eastward along the equator, generating westerly ZSW anomalies in their wake. These westerly ZSW anomalies produce cyclonic WSC anomalies off the equator which pump baroclinic Rossby waves in the western/central tropical North Pacific Ocean. These Rossby waves propagate westward, taking ???6, ???12, and ???36 months to reach the western boundary near ???7??N, ???12??N, and ???18??N on biennial, interannual, and decadal period scales, respectively. There, they reflect as equatorial coupled waves, propagating slowly eastward in covarying SST, Z18, and ZSW anomalies, taking ???6, ???12, and ???24 months to reach the central/eastern equatorial ocean. These equatorial coupled waves produce a delayed-negative feedback to the warm SST anomalies there. The decrease in Rossby wave phase speed with latitude, the increase in meridional scale of equatorial SST anomalies with period scale, and the associated increase in latitude of Rossby wave forcing are consistent with the delayed action oscillator (DAO) model used to explain El Nin??o. However, this is not true of the western-boundary reflection of Rossby waves into slow equatorial coupled waves. This requires modification of the extant DAO model. We construct a modified DAO model, demonstrating how the various mechanisms and the size and sources of their delays yield the resulting frequency of each signal.

Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans↗

USGS2005

A comparison of hydrographically and optically derived mixed layer depths

Efforts to understand and model the dynamics of the upper ocean would be significantly advanced given the ability to rapidly determine mixed layer depths (MLDs) over large regions. Remote sensing technologies are an ideal choice for achieving this goal. This study addresses the feasibility of estimating MLDs from optical properties. These properties are strongly influenced by suspended particle concentrations, which generally reach a maximum at pycnoclines. The premise therefore is to use a gradient in beam attenuation at 660 nm (c660) as a proxy for the depth of a particle-scattering layer. Using a global data set collected during World Ocean Circulation Experiment cruises from 1988-1997, six algorithms were employed to compute MLDs from either density or temperature profiles. Given the absence of published optically based MLD algorithms, two new methods were developed that use c660 profiles to estimate the MLD. Intercomparison of the six hydrographically based algorithms revealed some significant disparities among the resulting MLD values. Comparisons between the hydrographical and optical approaches indicated a first-order agreement between the MLDs based on the depths of gradient maxima for density and c660. When comparing various hydrographically based algorithms, other investigators reported that inherent fluctuations of the mixed layer depth limit the accuracy of its determination to 20 m. Using this benchmark, we found a ???70% agreement between the best hydrographical-optical algorithm pairings. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.

Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans↗

USGS2020

Surface methane concentrations along the mid-Atlantic bight driven by aerobic subsurface production rather than seafloor gas seeps

Relatively minor amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, are currently emitted from the oceans to the atmosphere, but such methane emissions have been hypothesized to increase as oceans warm. Here, we investigate the source, distribution, and fate of methane released from the upper continental slope of the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Bight, where hundreds of gas seeps have been discovered between the shelf-break and ~1600 m water depth. Using physical, chemical, and isotopic analyses, we identify two main sources of methane in the water column: seafloor gas seeps and in situ aerobic methanogenesis which primarily occurs at 100 – 200 m depth in the water column. Stable isotopic analyses reveal that water samples collected at all depths were significantly impacted by aerobic methane oxidation, the dominant methane sink in this region, with more than 50% of the methane being oxidized, on average. Due to methane oxidation in the deeper water column, below 200 m depth, surface concentrations of methane are influenced more by methane sources found near the surface (0 – 10 m depth) and in the subsurface (10 - 200 m depth), rather than seafloor emissions at greater depths.

Atlantic margin↗

USGS2018

Hydrodynamics of a tidally‐forced coral reef atoll

The hydrodynamics of a tidally forced semi‐enclosed coral reef atoll (North Scott) at the edge of the continental shelf of northwestern Australia were investigated by combining field observations and numerical modeling. The observations revealed that the spring tidal range outside the atoll reaches 4 m, and as the water level drops below mean sea level, the reef rim surrounding the shallow (~10–15 m) lagoon becomes exposed. During this time, the lagoon can only exchange with the open ocean through two narrow channels, resulting in highly asymmetric water levels and velocities that were most pronounced during spring tide. On average, the ebb tide duration was ~2 hr longer than the flood, with rapid flood velocities in the channel reaching 2 m/s. We applied an unstructured grid model Delft3D‐Flexible Mesh to simulate the atoll hydrodynamics and were able to replicate the asymmetric water levels and complex velocities in the lagoon. The results revealed that at higher tidal stages, a dominant momentum balance exists between the pressure gradient (established by the propagation of the tide on the shelf) and the local flow acceleration of water throughout the interior of the atoll. At lower tidal stages, which coincided with a reversal of the offshore tidal pressure gradient, the lagoon became isolated from offshore dynamics and all momentum terms were negligible. This resulted in a tidally averaged residual westward flow within the lagoon that drove an asymmetric flushing pattern within the atoll, which we propose would be a common flushing mechanism within other tide‐dominated atolls worldwide.

Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans↗

USGS1999

Physical characteristics of summer sea ice across the Arctic Ocean

Sea ice characteristics were investigated during July and August on the 1994 transect across the Arctic Ocean. Properties examined from ice cores included salinity, temperature, and ice structure. Salinities measured near zero at the surface, increasing to 3–4‰ at the ice-water interface. Ice crystal texture was dominated by columnar ice, comprising 90% of the ice sampled. Surface albedos of various ice types, measured with radiometers, showed integrated shortwave albedos of 0.1 to 0.3 for melt ponds, 0.5 for bare, discolored ice, and 0.6 to 0.8 for a deteriorated surface or snow-covered ice. Aerial photography was utilized to document the distribution of open melt ponds, which decreased from 12% coverage of the ice surface in late July at 76°N to almost none in mid-August at 88°N. Most melt ponds were shallow, and depth bore no relationship to size. Sediment was pervasive from the southern Chukchi Sea to the north pole, occurring in bands or patches. It was absent in the Eurasian Arctic, where it had been observed on earlier expeditions. Calculations of reverse trajectories of the sediment-bearing floes suggest that the southernmost sediment was entrained during ice formation in the Beaufort Sea while more northerly samples probably originated in the East Siberian Sea, some as far west as the New Siberian Islands.

Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans↗

USGS2005

Numerical modeling of an estuary: A comprehensive skill assessment

Numerical simulations of the Hudson River estuary using a terrain-following, three-dimensional model (Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS)) are compared with an extensive set of time series and spatially resolved measurements over a 43 day period with large variations in tidal forcing and river discharge. The model is particularly effective at reproducing the observed temporal variations in both the salinity and current structure, including tidal, spring neap, and river discharge-induced variability. Large observed variations in stratification between neap and spring tides are captured qualitatively and quantitatively by the model. The observed structure and variations of the longitudinal salinity gradient are also well reproduced. The most notable discrepancy between the model and the data is in the vertical salinity structure. While the surface-to-bottom salinity difference is well reproduced, the stratification in the model tends to extend all the way to the water surface, whereas the observations indicate a distinct pycnocline and a surface mixed layer. Because the southern boundary coindition is located near the mouth the estuary, the salinity within the domain is particularly sensitive to the specification of salinity at the boundary. A boundary condition for the horizontal salinity gradient, based on the local value of salinity, is developed to incorporate physical processes beyond the open boundary not resolved by the model. Model results are sensitive to the specification of the bottom roughness length and vertical stability functions, insofar as they influence the intensity of vertical mixing. The results only varied slightly between different turbulence closure methods of k-??, k-??, and k-kl. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.

New York↗

USGS2000

Time-averaged fluxes of lead and fallout radionuclides to sediments in Florida Bay

Recent, unmixed sediments from mud banks of central Florida Bay were dated using 210 Pb/ 226 Ra, and chronologies were verified by comparing sediment lead temporal records with Pb/Ca ratios in annual layers of coral ( Montastrea annularis ) located on the ocean side of the Florida Keys. Dates of sediment lead peaks (1978±2) accord with prior observations of a 6 year lag between the occurrence of maximum atmospheric lead in 1972 and peak coral lead in 1978. Smaller lags of 1–2 years occur between the maximum atmospheric radionuclide fallout and peaks in sediment temporal records of 137 Cs and Pu. Such lags are consequences of system time averaging (STA) in which atmospherically delivered particle-associated constituents accumulate and mix in a (sedimentary?) reservoir before transferring to permanent sediments and coral. STA model calculations, using time-dependent atmospheric inputs, produced optimized profiles in excellent accord with measured sediment 137 Cs, Pu, lead, and coral lead distributions. Derived residence times of these particle tracers (16±1, 15.7±0.7, 19±3, and 16±2 years, respectively) are comparable despite differences in sampling locations, in accumulating media, and in element loading histories and geochemical properties. For a 16 year weighted mean residence time, STA generates the observed 6 year lead peak lag. Evidently, significant levels of nondegradable, particle-associated contaminants can persist in Florida Bay for many decades following elimination of external inputs. Present results, in combination with STA model analysis of previously reported radionuclide profiles, suggest that decade-scale time averaging may occur widely in recent coastal marine sedimentary environments.

Florida↗

USGS2012

Modeling tidal exchange and dispersion in Boston Harbor

Tidal dispersion and the horizontal exchange of water between Boston Harbor and the surrounding ocean are examined with a high-resolution (200 m) depth-averaged numerical model. The strongly varying bathymetry and coastline geometry of the harbor generate complex spatial patterns in the modeled tidal currents which are verified by shipboard acoustic Doppler surveys. Lagrangian exchange experiments demonstrate that tidal currents rapidly exchange and mix material near the inlets of the harbor due to asymmetry in the ebb/flood response. This tidal mixing zone extends roughly a tidal excursion from the inlets and plays an important role in the overall flushing of the harbor. Because the tides can only efficiently mix material in this limited region, however, harbor flushing must be considered a two step process: rapid exchange in the tidal mixing zone, followed by flushing of the tidal mixing zone by nontidal residual currents. Estimates of embayment flushing based on tidal calculations alone therefore can significantly overestimate the flushing time that would be expected under typical environmental conditions. Particle-release simulations from point sources also demonstrate that while the tides efficiently exchange material in the vicinity of the inlets, the exact nature of dispersion from point sources is extremely sensitive to the timing and location of the release, and the distribution of particles is streaky and patchlike. This suggests that high-resolution modeling of dispersion from point sources in these regions must be performed explicitly and cannot be parameterized as a plume with Gaussian-spreading in a larger scale flow field.

Massachusetts↗

USGS2014

Suspended particulate layers and internal waves over the southern Monterey Bay continental shelf: an important control on shelf mud belts?

Physical and optical measurements taken over the mud belt on the southern continental shelf of Monterey Bay, California documented the frequent occurrence of suspended particulate matter features, the majority of which were detached from the seafloor, centered 9–33 m above the bed. In fall 2011, an automated profiling mooring and fixed instrumentation, including a thermistor chain and upward-looking acoustic Doppler current profiler, were deployed at 70 m depth for 5 weeks, and from 12 to 16 October a long-range autonomous underwater vehicle performed across-shelf transects. Individual SPM events were uncorrelated with local bed shear stress caused by surface waves and bottom currents. Nearly half of all observed SPM layers occurred during 1 week of the study, 9–16 October 2011, and were advected past the fixed profiling mooring by the onshore phase of semidiurnal internal tide bottom currents. At the start of the 9–16 October period, we observed intense near-bed vertical velocities capable of lifting particulates into the middle of the water column. This “updraft” event appears to have been associated with nonlinear adjustment of high-amplitude internal tides over the mid and outer shelf. These findings suggest that nonlinear internal tidal motions can erode material over the outer shelf and that, once suspended, this SPM can then be transported shoreward to the middle and shallow sections of the mud belt. This represents a fundamental broadening of our understanding of how shelf mud belts may be built up and sustained.

California↗

USGS2014

Interactions between waves, sediment, and turbulence on a shallow estuarine mudflat

Measurements were collected on a shallow estuarine mudflat in northern San Francisco Bay to examine the physical processes controlling waves, turbulence, sediment resuspension, and their interactions. Tides alone forced weak to moderate currents of 10–30 cm s -1 in depths of 0–3 m, and maintained a background suspension of 30–50 mg L21 of fine sediment. In the presence of wind waves, bottom orbital velocities spanned 20–30 cm s -1 , suspended-sediment concentrations (SSC) at 15 and 30 cm above the bed (cmab) increased by 1–2 orders of magnitude, and vertical gradients in SSC were strong enough to produce turbulence-limiting stratification, with gradient Richardson numbers exceeding 0.25. Simultaneously, turbulent stresses (decomposed from wave motions) increased by an order of magnitude. The apparent contradiction of energetic turbulence in the presence of strong stratification was reconciled by considering the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budget: in general, dissipation and buoyancy flux were balanced by local shear production, and each of these terms increased during wave events. The classic wave-current boundary layer model represented the observations qualitatively, but not quantitatively since the velocity profile could not be approximated as logarithmic. Rather, the mean shear was elevated by the Stokes drift return flow and wind-generated surface stress, which diffused sediment upward and limited stratification. Our findings highlight a pathway for waves to supply energy to both the production and destruction of turbulence, and demonstrate that in such shallow depths, TKE and SSC can be elevated over more of the water column than predicted by traditional models.

California↗

USGS2016

Forcing and variability of nonstationary rip currents

Surface wave transformation and the resulting nearshore circulation along a section of coast with strong alongshore bathymetric gradients outside the surf zone are modeled for a consecutive 4 week time period. The modeled hydrodynamics are compared to in situ measurements of waves and currents collected during the Nearshore Canyon Experiment and indicate that for the entire range of observed conditions, the model performance is similar to other studies along this stretch of coast. Strong alongshore wave height gradients generate rip currents that are observed by remote sensing data and predicted qualitatively well by the numerical model. Previous studies at this site have used idealized scenarios to link the rip current locations to undulations in the offshore bathymetry but do not explain the dichotomy between permanent offshore bathymetric features and intermittent rip current development. Model results from the month‐long simulation are used to track the formation and location of rip currents using hourly statistics, and results show that the direction of the incoming wave energy strongly controls whether rip currents form. In particular, most of the offshore wave spectra were bimodal and we find that the ratio of energy contained in each mode dictates rip current development, and the alongshore rip current position is controlled by the incident wave period. Additionally, model simulations performed with and without updating the nearshore morphology yield no significant change in the accuracy of the predicted surf zone hydrodyanmics indicating that the large‐scale offshore features (e.g., submarine canyon) predominately control the nearshore wave‐circulation system.

Journal of Geophysical Research C: Oceans↗