Transient rip currents, episodic offshore flows from the surf zone to the inner shelf, present a recreational beach hazard and exchange material across the nearshore ocean. The magnitude and offshore extent of transient rip‐current‐induced exchange and its relative importance to other inner shelf exchange processes are poorly understood. Here 120 model simulations with random, normally incident, directionally spread waves spanning a range of beach slopes and wave conditions show that the transient rip current exchange velocity is self‐similar. The nondimensional exchange velocity, surf zone flushing time, and cross‐shore decay length scale are scaled by beach slope and wave properties, depending strongly on wave directional spread. Transient rip‐current‐driven exchange can be compared to other cross‐shelf exchange processes. For example, transient rip‐current‐driven exchange is stronger than wave‐induced Stokes‐drift‐driven exchange up to six surf zone widths from shore.

Moored observations of temperature and current were collected on the inner continental shelf off Point Sal, California, between 9 June and 8 August 2015. The measurements consist of 10 moorings in total: 4 moorings each on the 50- and 30-m isobaths covering a 10-km along-shelf distance and an across-shelf section of moorings on the 50-, 40-, 30-, and 20-m isobaths covering a 5-km distance. Energetic, highly variable, and strongly dissipating transient wave events termed internal tide bores and internal solitary waves (ISWs) dominate the records. Simple models of the bore and ISW space–time behavior are implemented as a temperature match filter to detect events and estimate wave packet parameters as a function of time and mooring position. Wave-derived quantities include 1) group speed and direction; 2) time of arrival, time duration, vertical displacement amplitude, and waves per day; and 3) energy density, energy flux, and propagation loss. In total, over 1000 bore events and over 9000 ISW events were detected providing well-sampled statistical distributions. Statistics of the waves are rather insensitive to position along shelf but change markedly in the across-shelf direction. Two compelling results are 1) that the probability density functions for bore and ISW energy flux are nearly exponential, suggesting the importance of interference and 2) that wave propagation loss is proportional to energy flux, thus giving an exponential decay of energy flux toward shore with an e-folding scale of 2–2.4 km and average dissipation rates for bores and ISWs of 144 and 1.5 W m−1, respectively.

In upwelling regions, wind relaxations lead to poleward propagating warm water plumes that are important to coastal ecosystems. The coastal ocean response to wind relaxation around Pt. Conception, CA is simulated with a Regional Ocean Model (ROMS) forced by realistic surface and lateral boundary conditions including tidal processes. The model reproduces well the statistics of observed subtidal water column temperature and velocity at both outer and inner‐shelf mooring locations throughout the study. A poleward‐propagating plume of Southern California Bight water that increases shelf water temperatures by ≈ 5°C is also reproduced. Modeled plume propagation speed, spatial scales, and flow structure are consistent with a theoretical scaling for coastal buoyant plumes with both surface‐trapped and slope‐controlled dynamics. Plume momentum balances are distinct between the offshore (>30 m depth) region where the plume is surface‐trapped, and onshore of the 30 m isobath (within 5 km from shore) where the plume water mass extends to the bottom and is slope controlled. In the onshore region, bottom stress is important in the alongshore momentum equation and generates vertical vorticity that is an order of magnitude larger than the vorticity in the plume core. Numerical experiments without tidal forcing show that modeled surface temperatures are biased 0.5°C high, potentially affecting plume propagation distance and persistence.

Accurately representing diurnal and semidiurnal internal variability is necessary to investigate inner-shelf to midshelf exchange processes. Here, a coupled Regional Ocean Model System (ROMS)–Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN) model is compared to observed diurnal and semidiurnal internal tidal variability on the mid and inner shelf (26–8 m water depth) near San Pedro Bay, California. Modeled mean stratification is about one-half of that observed. Modeled and observed baroclinic velocity rotary spectra are similar in the diurnal and semidiurnal band. Modeled and observed temperature spectra have similar diurnal and semidiurnal band structure, although the modeled is weaker. The observed and modeled diurnal and semidiurnal baroclinic velocity- and temperature-dominant vertical structures are similar and consistent with mode-one internal motions. Both observed and modeled diurnal baroclinic kinetic energy are strongly correlated to diurnal wind forcing and enhanced by subtidal vorticity-induced reduction in the inertial frequency. The mid- and inner-shelf modeled diurnal depth-integrated heat budget is a balance between advective heat flux divergence and temperature time derivative. Temperature–velocity phase indicates progressive semidiurnal internal tide on the midshelf and largely standing internal tide on the inner shelf in both observed and modeled. The ratio of observed to modeled inferred phase speed is consistent with the observed to modeled stratification. The San Pedro Bay modeled semidiurnal internal tide has significant spatial variability, variable incident wave angles, and multiple local generation sites. Overall, the coupled ROMS–SWAN model represents well the complex diurnal and semidiurnal internal variability from the mid to the inner shelf.

A series of five realistic, nested, hydrostatic numerical ocean model simulations are used to study semidiurnal internal tide generation and propagation from the continental slope, through the shelf break and to the midshelf adjacent to Point Sal, CA. The statistics of modeled temperature and horizontal velocity fluctuations are compared to midshelf observations (30‐ to 50‐m water depth). Time‐ and frequency‐domain methods are used to decompose internal tides into components that are coherent and incoherent with the barotropic tide, and the incoherence fraction is 0.5–0.7 at the midshelf locations in both the realistic model and observations. In contrast, the incoherence fraction is at the most 0.45 for a simulation with idealized stratification, and neither atmospheric forcing nor mesoscale currents. Negligible conversion from barotropic to baroclinic energy occurs at the local shelf break. Instead, the dominant internal tide energy sources are regions of small‐scale near‐critical to supercritical bathymetry on the Santa Lucia escarpment (1,000–3,000 m), 70–80 km from the continental shelf. Near the generation region, semidiurnal baroclinic energy is primarily coherent and rapidly decays adjacent to the shelf break. In the realistically forced model, incoherent energy is less than 10% in the generation region, with a steady increase in incoherence fraction from the continental slope to the midshelf. Backward ray tracing from the midshelf to the Santa Lucia escarpment identifies multiple energy pathways potentially leading to spatial interference. As internal tides shoal on the predominantly subcritical slope/shelf system, temporally variable stratification and Doppler shifting from mesoscale and submesoscale features appear equally important in leading to the loss of coherence.

[1] In the summer of 2007, physical measurements including velocity from acoustic Doppler current profilers, surface gravity wave heights measured acoustically, and temperature from thermistor chain arrays were collected along-and across-the mid to inner shelf (water depths from 10-60 m) in northern Monterey Bay. The oceanic response to a strong (8-15 m s −1 daily maximum) along-shelf sea breeze is examined by evaluating the diurnal heat budget over a cross-shelf section of the inner shelf. The diurnal heat budget closes to within the 95% confidence level with daily warming and cooling periods explained by two separate, but related processes. During evening/early morning warming period, 77% of the observed temperature increase is due to along-shelf advection of a temperature gradient within the upwelling shadow zone, a process which is arrested during the period of wind-forcing. In contrast, 75% of the afternoon cooling period is explained by the cross-shelf heat flux driven by diurnal along-shelf winds. In this study, diurnal tides are found to contribute less than 10% of the observed temperature variability and surface gravity waves do not show any significant diurnal variability. Richardson number estimates show that, on average, wind-induced shear is not strong enough to erode the strength of water column stratification within the upwelling shadow.

The effects of barotropic and baroclinic tides on subtidal stratification and vertical mixing are examined with high‐resolution, three‐dimensional numerical simulations of the Central Californian coastal upwelling region. A base simulation with realistic atmospheric and regional‐scale boundary forcing but no tides (NT) is compared to two simulations with the addition of predominantly barotropic local tides (LT) and with combined barotropic and remotely generated, baroclinic tides (WT) with ≈ 100 W normalm−1 onshore baroclinic energy flux. During a 10 day period of coastal upwelling when the domain volume‐averaged temperature is similar in all three simulations, LT has little difference in subtidal temperature and stratification compared to NT. In contrast, the addition of remote baroclinic tides (WT) reduces the subtidal continental shelf stratification up to 50% relative to NT. Idealized simulations to isolate barotropic and baroclinic effects demonstrate that within a parameter space of typical U.S. West Coast continental shelf slopes, barotropic tidal currents, incident energy flux, and subtidal stratification, the dissipating baroclinic tide destroys stratification an order of magnitude faster than barotropic tides. In WT, the modeled vertical temperature diffusivity at the top (base) of the bottom (surface) boundary layer is increased up to 20 times relative to NT. Therefore, the width of the inner‐shelf (region of surface and bottom boundary layer overlap) is increased approximately 4 times relative to NT. The change in stratification due to dissipating baroclinic tides is comparable to the magnitude of the observed seasonal cycle of stratification.

The effects of barotropic and baroclinic tides on three-dimensional (3-D) coastal dispersion are examined with realistic, 200-m horizontal resolution simulations of the Central Californian continental shelf during upwelling. Over multiple tidal cycles, the horizontal relative dispersion and vertical dispersion of 3-D drifters are similar between simulations with no tides and with barotropic tides. In contrast, baroclinic tides, which dissipate across the shelf and induce vertical mixing, result in a factor of 2-3 times larger horizontal and vertical dispersion. The increase in horizontal dispersion with vertical mixing is qualitatively consistent with weak-mixing shear dispersion. Without shear dispersion, horizontal dispersion of surface-trapped (2-D) drifters was similar in all simulations. However, 2-D drifter trajectory differences relative to no tide simulations are 3-4 times larger with baroclinic tides than barotropic tides alone. These results demonstrate the need to include baroclinic tides and 3-D tracking for coastal passive tracer dispersion. Plain Language SummaryUnderstanding the dispersal of material in the coastal ocean is relevant to pollutant dilution, marine ecosystem sustainability, and search-and-rescue operations. Although numerical circulation models are commonly used to predict material dispersal, these models often do not include tides. Here the tidal effect on material dispersal is compared with numerical drifters released in a realistic model without tides, with surface tides (the rise and fall of sea level), and with internal tides (the rise and fall of interior density layers). Surface tides contribute little additional dispersal in the model region, while internal tides induce 2-3 times larger horizontal and about 2 times larger vertical dispersal in comparison to models without tides. In addition, after 48 hr surface drifter trajectory differences between models with and without internal tides are 8 km. Therefore, internal tides need to be considered in models used to plan oil-spill response or search-and-rescue operations.