Modeling the Residence Time of Mobile Bay in Alabama

The Three-dimensional Hydrodynamic-Eutrophication Model/Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (HEM3D/EFDC) was used to calculate the residence time of Mobile Bay in Alabama using Eulerian passive tracer method. Mobile Bay is about 50 km long and 20 km wide, so it can be divided into several sections which may have different residence times. Three typical boundary conditions that affect residence time are tide, river discharge, and wind. Mobile Bay is located in the northern Gulf of Mexico and is a micro-tidal region. Two most important tidal components here are K₁ and O₁, and the maximum tidal range of tropic (spring) tide is less than 0.6 m. There is a difference between the simulation results with and without tidal condition (K₁+O₁) even though the tidal range is relatively smaller than that in macro-tidal regions. Also the minimum, mean, and maximum of daily mean river discharge for 38 years (1976-2013) in Mobile and Tensaw River are 80.7 m³/s, 1700.8 m³/s, and 14186.7 m³/s respectively, and there are daily, monthly, seasonal, and annual variations. The residence time can be largely affected by the river discharge because of its large deviation. Even though the dominant wind here is southerly in the spring and summer and is northerly in the fall and winter, the wind speed and direction change over time. Continuous winds from similar directions can reduce and increase the residence time such as the southerly, southwesterly, northerly, and northeasterly winds in alignment with the direction of the inlet and outlet of Mobile Bay. Also the short term changes of wind direction and speed can affect it complicatedly. Therefore, the simulations with the combinations of three boundary conditions allow us to understand the water circulation in Mobile Bay well and to predict the residence time when some accidents happen such as contaminations by factories, sewage plants, ships and oil spills.