CD12A:
The Inner Shelf: Opening the Black Box Connecting the Coastal Ocean and the Surf Zone II


Session ID#: 37738

Session Description:
The inner part of the continental shelf connects the surfzone, dominated by waves, to the coastal ocean, dominated by larger scale dynamics as the circulation adjusts to the presence of a coastal boundary. Extending from the outer edge of the surfzone to water depths of up to 50 m, surface and bottom boundary layers generally overlap and interact within the inner shelf as the region is forced by wind, waves, surface heat fluxes, barotropic tides and nonlinear internal waves. Also, wind-driven currents, thermally-driven baroclinic exchange, submesoscale activity, surfzone processes, and flow interactions with coastal topography can lead to variability, meanders and eddies at a wide range of scales. Understanding the linkage from the outer shelf to the surfzone through the inner shelf is important to predict water property exchange (heat, sediment, pollutants, biota), to search and rescue, and for shallow water acoustics. This session seeks to advance our understanding of in-situ and remote sensing observations, and numerical modeling studies focused on inner-shelf dynamics with length scales of up to 50 km. In particular, studies investigating the relative importance of the range of physical processes driving inner shelf circulation in areas removed from freshwater-driven systems are encouraged.
Primary Chair:  Nirnimesh Kumar, University of Washington, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seattle, WA, United States
Co-chairs:  Anthony Kirincich, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States, Rachel Horwitz, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada and Kristen A Davis, University of California Irvine, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Irvine, CA, United States
Moderators:  Rachel Horwitz, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada and Anthony Kirincich, Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst, Woods Hole, MA, United States
Student Paper Review Liaison:  Nirnimesh Kumar, University of Washington Seattle Campus, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seattle, WA, United States
Index Terms:

4520 Eddies and mesoscale processes [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4544 Internal and inertial waves [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4546 Nearshore processes [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4560 Surface waves and tides [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
Cross-Topics:
  • PL - Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Larger
  • PS - Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Smaller

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

OBSERVATIONS OF LANGMUIR TURBULENCE IN THE INNER SHELF IN FALL AND WINTER (320606)
Gregory P Gerbi1, Samantha Kenah2 and Matthew R. Cocke2, (1)Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, United States, (2)Skidmore College, Physics, Saratoga Springs, NY, United States
Drifter Observations of Anisotropic Horizontal Dispersion and Submesoscale Flow Kinematics over the Inner-Shelf (314258)
Carter Ohlmann1, Leonel Romero1, Enric Pallas Sanz2, Nemesis Aguilar-Tepole2 and Paula Perez-Brunius2, (1)University of California Santa Barbara, Earth Research Institute, Santa Barbara, CA, United States, (2)CICESE, Ensenada, Mexico
Barotropic and baroclinic tidal effects on coastal mixing and dispersion (316207)
Sutara H Suanda, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Integrative Oceanography Division, La Jolla, CA, United States, Nirnimesh Kumar, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Columbia, SC, United States and Falk Feddersen, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, United States
Tidal Band Heat Flux on the Pt. Sal, CA Inner Shelf (320768)
Thomas M Freismuth1, Jamie MacMahan1, John Anthony Colosi1, Sutara H Suanda2 and Nirnimesh Kumar3, (1)Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, United States, (2)Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, United States, (3)Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Columbia, SC, United States
A Detailed Nearshore Heat Budget (306089)
Gregory Sinnett and Falk Feddersen, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, United States
Dynamics of Thermally-Driven Cross-Shore Exchange (309640)
Aryan Safaie, University of California, Irvine, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Irvine, CA, United States, Kristen A Davis, University of California Irvine, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Irvine, CA, United States and Geno R Pawlak, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
Temporal Variability in Thermally-Driven Cross-Shore Exchange: the Role of the M2 Tide (323289)
Geno R Pawlak, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States, Hugo Nicolas Ulloa, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, Kristen A Davis, University of California Irvine, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Irvine, CA, United States and Stephen G Monismith, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
Along-coast connectivity in Texas and Louisiana (323282)
Kristen M Thyng, Texas A&M University College Station, College Station, TX, United States

See more of: Coastal Dynamics