Seasonal Variability of Tidal Currents in Tampa Bay, Florida

Dusek, Gregory; Park, Joseph; Paternostro, Christopher

doi:10.1061/(asce)ww.1943-5460.0000373

“…Moreover, the semi-annual variation of the K1 amplitude demonstrates the pivotal role of the monsoons in intensifying the land-sea breeze and subsequently enhance the astronomical K1 tidal forcing. This result corroborates with prior results presented by Álvarez et al (2003) and Dusek et al (2017), both of whom concluded that the strength of sea breeze wind stress is responsible for the seasonal variations of the K1 amplitude of estuarine tidal currents in Cádiz Bay, Spain, and Tampa Bay, Florida, respectively.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…The short-term harmonic analysis (STHA) involves conducting HA on short consecutive segments of the entire time series to provide moderate localisation of events involved in the modulation of tidal processes (Jay and Flinchem, 1995). Dusek et al (2017) performed bimonthly HA on an 11-year record of estuarine currents in Tampa Bay, Florida, and found that tidal currents strengthen during periods of strong land-sea breeze and high freshwater discharge. However, STHA cannot resolve constituents with periods longer than the window length nor capture the temporal variation of tidal constituents (Flinchem and Jay, 2000).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Importance of tides and winds in influencing the nonstationary behaviour of coastal currents in offshore Singapore

Puah,

Haigh,

Lallemant

et al. 2024

Preprint

0

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Abstract. Coastal currents significantly impact port activities, coastal landform morphodynamics and ecosystem functioning. It is therefore necessary to understand the physical characteristics and natural variability of these currents within coastal settings. Traditional methods such as harmonic analysis assume stationarity of tide-driven currents and thus may not be applicable to systems modulated by variable nontidal inputs and processes. Here we deployed eight tilt current meters at shallow (< 5 m) coral reef environments in southern Singapore. Tilt current meters were positioned around the reefs at the main compass bearings to analyse the spatiotemporal variability of coastal currents in the frequency domain for one year (March 2018 to March 2019). Tidal motions were the primary mechanism of current flow on reefs and account for between 14–45 % of total variance across all sites, with diurnal currents having either similar or greater proportion of energy than semidiurnal currents. In Singapore, the diurnal wind stress, characteristic of the land–sea breeze, strengthens during the monsoons, and its effect on currents was investigated using wavelet coherence. Findings suggest that currents and wind stress were highly correlated at the diurnal and subtidal frequencies during the monsoons with a varying time lag of up to 6 hours with respect to both the phase and the antiphase. We find that wind forcing was responsible for the observed seasonal variations in the diurnal K1 tidal constituent, its amplitude derived from short-term harmonic analysis. Given the importance of wind, we thus require longer time-series datasets to examine how atmospheric phenomena affect currents at greater time scales to improve predictions.

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“…Moreover, the semi-annual variation of the K1 amplitude demonstrates the pivotal role of the monsoons in intensifying the land-sea breeze and subsequently enhance the astronomical K1 tidal forcing. This result corroborates with prior results presented by Álvarez et al (2003) and Dusek et al (2017), both of whom concluded that the strength of sea breeze wind stress is responsible for the seasonal variations of the K1 amplitude of estuarine tidal currents in Cádiz Bay, Spain, and Tampa Bay, Florida, respectively.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…The short-term harmonic analysis (STHA) involves conducting HA on short consecutive segments of the entire time series to provide moderate localisation of events involved in the modulation of tidal processes (Jay and Flinchem, 1995). Dusek et al (2017) performed bimonthly HA on an 11-year record of estuarine currents in Tampa Bay, Florida, and found that tidal currents strengthen during periods of strong land-sea breeze and high freshwater discharge. However, STHA cannot resolve constituents with periods longer than the window length nor capture the temporal variation of tidal constituents (Flinchem and Jay, 2000).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%