Drivers of residual estuarine circulation in tidally energetic estuaries: Straight and irrotational channels with parabolic cross section

The generation of residual circulation in a tidally energetic estuary with constant longitudinal salinity gradient and parabolic cross section is examined by means of a two-dimensional cross-sectional numerical model, neglecting river runoff and Stokes drift. It is shown how the longitudinal and lateral residual circulation can be decomposed...

Channel and shoal development in a short tidal embayment: An idealized model study

In many tidal embayments, complex patterns of channels and shoals are observed. To gain a better understanding of these features, an idealized model, that describes the interaction of water motion, sediment transport and bed evolution in a semi-enclosed, rectangular basin, is developed and analysed. To explain the initial formation of channels...

Instability of time-dependent wind-driven ocean gyres

The wind-driven ocean circulation at midlatitudes is susceptible to several types of instabilities. One of the simplest models of these flows is the quasigeostrophic barotropic potential vorticity equation in an idealized ocean basin. In this model, the route to complex spatio/temporal flows is through successive bifurcations. The aim of this...