Impact of Hurricane Barry (2019) on the inner shelf circulation and exchange flow of Barataria Bay

Large scale atmospheric forcing can induce significant hydrodynamic response at the inner shelf and in estuaries. Hurricanes are examples of such forcing with potentially significant impact to the coastal ocean and estuaries. Hurricane Barry occurred in July of 2019 and made its landfall at southern Louisiana on July 13. This study presents analysis of observations of velocity profiles and water level variations collected on the inner shelf, south of Timbalier Bay at the Ship Shoal, as well as simultaneous measurements at Barataria Pass. These data are provided through the WAVCIS lab long-term observation stations, as part of the IOOS-GCOOS. The observations provide valuable information of the hydrodynamic response at various time scales. These mainly include the subtidal and super tidal regimes. Although the super tidal regime might seem to be unimportant because a longer-term average would smooth the variations, it potentially contains meteorological tsunamis that usually have much shorter time scales than most storm surges, nonhydrostatic waves of relatively long wavelength of transient nature that could have adverse effect to harbors and coastal structures. The hydrodynamics can also affect sediment transport thereby affecting geomorphology. A model is used to examine the coastal circulation under the influence of this tropical cyclone, particularly the effect of wind stress.