Deep ocean exchange with west-European shelf seas

We review mechanisms and studies of exchange between the north-east Atlantic and the adjacent shelf sea. Well-developed summer upwelling and associated filaments off Portugal and north-west Spain give exchange O(3 m**2/s per unit length of shelf). Prevailing westerly winds further north drive exchange O(1 m**2/s). Poleward flow along most of the upper slope has associated secondary circulation O(1 m**2/s), meanders and eddies. Eddies are shed from slope waters into the Bay of Biscay, and local exchanges occur at shelf spurs and depressions or canyons (e.g. dense-water cascading of order 1 m**2/s). Tidal transports are larger, but their reversal every six hours makes exchange largely ineffective except where internal tides are large and non-linear, as in the Celtic Sea where solitons carry water with exchange O(1 m**2/s). These various physical exchanges amount to an estimated 2-3 m**2/s per unit length of shelf, between ocean and shelf. A numerical model estimate is comparable: 2.5 x 106 m**3/s onto and off the shelf from Brittany to Norway. Mixing controls the seasonal thermocline, affecting primary production and hence fluxes and fate of organic matter. Specifically, CO2 take-up by primary production, settling below the thermocline before respiration, and then off-shelf transport, make an effective shelf-sea “pump” (for CO2 from the atmosphere to the deep ocean). However, knowledge of biogeochemical fluxes is generally sparse, giving scope for more measurements, model validation and estimates from models

Effects of longshore shelf variations on barotropic continental shelf waves, slope currents and ocean modes

Effects of continental shelf bends, converging depth contours and changing depth profiles are discussed. Some analysis is carried out for previously unstudied cases. Separate oceanic interior and shelf flow problems are formulated for a sufficiently narrow shelf. The ocean interior ‘sees’ only an integrated shelf effect, typically increasing shelf-edge amplitudes, retarding longshore Kelvin-wave propagation and increasing natural mode periods by 0 (10%). On the local shelf, the flow matches to the ocean interior and is nondivergent. Effects on shelf waves and slope currents depend subtly on the nature of the longshore variations. Curvature and contour convergence do not per se imply scaterring or generation of shelf waves. Indeed, any depth h(ξ) where ▽2ξ(x,y) = 0 (a condition approximating longshelf uniformity in the topography's convexity) supports essentially the same shelf waves as do straight depth contours (DAVIS, 1983), and slope currents follow depth contours. Scattering results rather from breaks in analyticity of the depth profile. Hence calculations for small isolated features (necessarily highly convex or concave) may overestimate scattering, and superposition for realistic topography may lead to much self-cancellation among scattered waves. Otherwise, examples show a strong preference for scattering into adjacent mode numbers and into any shelf wave mode near to its maximum frequency. A shelf sector, where the maximum shelf wave frequency maxω is less than the frequency ω of an incident shelf wave, causes substantial scattering unless maxω and ω are very close. Adjustment of slope currents to changed conditions takes place through (and over the decay distance of) scattered shelf waves

Internal tides and waves near the continental shelf edge

The subject is reviewed from the viewpoints of theory, internal tide and wave structure and their implications. A wider theoretical context suggests scope for further investigation of natural or nearly-trapped forms above the inertial frequency. Although internal tides in many locations are observed to have first-mode vertical structure, higher modes are seen offshore from shallow shelf-break forcing and for particular Froude numbers, and may be expected locally near generation. Bottom intensification is often observed where the sea floor matches the characteristic slope. Solitons form from internal tides of large amplitude or at large changes of depth. Internal tides and solitons are observed also at many sills and in straits, and to intensify in canyons. Non-linear effects of the waves, especially solitons, include the conveyance of water, nutrients, ‘‘mixing potential'’ etc. away from their source to other locations, and the generation of mean currents. The waves transfer energy and possibly heat between the ocean and shelf, may be a source of medium frequency waves on the shelf (periods of minutes) and can contribute to interior mixing and overturning, bottom stirring and sediment movement

Wind-driven circulation in coastal and marginal seas

This paper considers the spatial and temporal detail in knowledge of the wind that is required to estimate various consequences of wind forcing: coastal trapped waves, sea-surface fluxes related to the frequency spectrum, storm surges, coastal downwelling and upwelling, wind-stress curl and downwelling or upwelling, wakes and stratification, diurnal and seasonal stratification, coastal currents and plumes, sea breeze effects, and surface waves. For many of these phenomena, winds need to be resolved on scales of the order 10 km (related to topographically induced structure) and 1�3 h (owing to rapid and non-linear responses). Relative errors in wind speed are typically multiplied by 2 or 3 for momentum inputs and mixing effects, respectively, which are particularly dependent on peak wind speeds (requiring correspondingly fine temporal resolution)

Circulation, exchange and water masses at the ocean margin: the role of physical processes at the shelf edge

The coastal ocean meets the deep sea at the continental shelf edge. Questions of global change entail elucidation of the processes that determine the quantities, transformation and fate of materials transported between the shelf and ocean, the measurement and definition of exchange processes, and the development of prognostic models of exchanges.Physical processes control the large-scale movement and irreversible small-scale mixing of water and its constituents. At the shelf edge, steep bathymetry may inhibit ocean-shelf exchange, but in combination with stratification gives rise to special processes and modelling challenges.A preliminary assessment is made of coastal-trapped waves; along-slope currents, instability and meanders; eddies; upwelling, fronts and filaments; downwelling, cascading; tides, surges; internal tides and waves as potentially influential processes in ocean-shelf exchange, water-mass structure and general circulation, according to their scales and context. For this purpose, theory and previous measurements are interpreted.Future studies needed to improve this assessment are discussed

On the formation of sand banks of finite extent

We consider a model where the fluid depth depends on both horizontal coordinates, quasi-steady depth-uniform non-divergent fluid flow is governed by inertial, pressure and bottom-frictional forces, sand transport is proportional to the cube of the instantaneous current but augmented by a down-slope component and by wind-wave action, and sand is conserved. It is found that low parallel banks grow fastest, so that in an extensive spatially uniform sea previous calculations for linear banks are appropriate. The inclination of banks to the tidal currents can be interpreted in terms of similarly inclined deposition bands resulting from vorticity generation and advection in flow over a small isolated hump. A small bump can evolve to an equilibrium bank (typically after an initial rapid extension across the tidal currents) provided that sand is sufficiently restricted and particularly if some wind-wave action prevents growth up to the sea surface. Sand banks are likely to be in a late stage of evolution, when the main change is a slow lengthening as the net current and transport along the bank side slows and turns around the bank end with net deposition. The equilibrium is apparently stable except when there is an overall bed slope in the direction of the tidal currents, or when sand is abundant