20 research outputs found

    Saltwater intrusion into the Changjiang River : a model-guided mechanism study

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    Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 114 (2009): C02006, doi:10.1029/2008JC004831.The Changjiang River (CR) is divided into a southern branch (SB) and a northern branche (NB) by Chongming Island as the river enters the East China Sea. Observations reveal that during the dry season the saltwater in the inner shelf of the East China Sea flows into the CR through the NB and forms an isolated mass of saltwater in the upstream area of the SB. The physical mechanism causing this saltwater intrusion has been studied using the high-resolution unstructured-grid Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM). The results suggest that the intrusion is caused by a complex nonlinear interaction process in relation to the freshwater flux upstream, tidal currents, mixing, wind, and the salt distribution in the inner shelf of the East China Sea. The tidal rectification, resulting from the interaction of the convergence or divergence of tidal momentum flux and bottom friction over abrupt topography, produces a net upstreamward volume flux from NB to SB. With river discharge the net water transport in the NB is driven through a momentum balance of surface elevation gradient forcing, horizontal advection, and vertical diffusion. In the dry season, reducing the surface elevation gradient forcing makes tidal rectification a key process favorable for the saltwater intrusion. A northerly wind tends to enhance the saltwater intrusion by reducing the seaward surface elevation gradient forcing rather than either the baroclinic pressure gradient forcing or the wind-driven Ekman transport. A convergence experiment suggests that high grid resolution (∼100 m or less) is required to correctly resolve the net water transport through the NB, particularly in the narrow channel on the northern coast of Chongming Island.The development of FVCOM is supported by the Massachusetts Fisheries Institute through NOAA grants DOC/ NOAA/NA04NMF4720332 and DOC/NOAA/NA05NMF4721131; NSF grants OCE-0234545, OCE-0227679, OCE-0606928, OCE-0712903, OCE-0732084, OCE-0726851, ARC0712903; ARC0732084, and ARC0804029; NOAA grant NA160P2323; and an ONR subcontract grant from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The development of the nested modeling approach is supported by MIT and URI Sea Grant projects NA060AR41700019 and R/P-061. C. Chen serves as Zi Jiang Scholar at the State Key Laboratory for Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University (ECNU), and is an adjunct professor at Shanghai Ocean University (SHOU). His contribution is also supported by both ECNU and SHOU. P. Ding is supported by the Chinese National Key Basic Research Project grant 2002CB412403

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    Three-dimensional structure of a low salinity tongue in the southern Taiwan Strait observed in the summer of 2005

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    Cruise observations with CTD (conductivity-temperature-depth) profiler were carried out in the southern Taiwan Strait in the summer of 2005. Using the cruise data, two-dimensional maps of salinity and temperature distributions at depths of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30 m were generated. The maps show a low salinity tongue sandwiched by low temperature and high salinity waters on the shallow water side and high temperature and high salinity waters on the deep water side. The further analysis indicates that the low salinity water has a nature of river-diluted water. A possible source of the diluted water is the Zhujiang (Pearl) Estuary. Meanwhile, the summer monsoon is judged as a possible driving force for this northeastward jet-like Current. The coastal upwelling and the South China Sea Warm Current confine the low salinity water to flow along the central line of the strait. Previous investigations and a numerical model are used to verify that the upstream of the low salinity current is the Zhujiang Estuary. Thus, the low salinity tongue is produced by four major elements: Zhujinag Estuary diluted water, monsoon wind driving, coastal upwelling and South China Sea Warm Current modifications.National Natural Science Foundation of China [40331004, 40576015, 40810069004, 40821063]; MEL Open Project [MEL0506]; ONR [N00014-05-1-0328, N00014-05-1-0606]; NSF [071003-9222

    A gravel-sand bifurcation:a simple model and the stability of the equilibrium states

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    A river bifurcation, can be found in, for instance, a river delta, in braided or anabranching reaches, and in manmade side channels in restored river reaches. Depending on the partitioning of water and sediment over the bifurcating branches, the bifurcation develops toward (a) a stable state with two downstream branches or (b) a state in which the water discharge in one of the branches continues to increase at the expense of the other branch (Wang et al., 1995). This may lead to excessive deposition in the latter branch that eventually silts up. For navigation, flood safety, and river restoration purposes, it is important to assess and develop tools to predict such long-term behavior of the bifurcation. A first and highly schematized one-dimensional model describing (the development towards) the equilibrium states of two bifurcating branches was developed by Wang et al (1995). The use of a one-dimensional model implies the need for a nodal point relation that describes the partitioning of sediment over the bifurcating branches. Wang et al (1995) introduce a nodal point relation as a function of the partitioning of the water discharge. They simplify their nodal point relation to the following form: s*=q*k , where s* denotes the ratio of the sediment discharges per unit width in the bifurcating branches, q* denotes the ratio of the water discharges per unit width in the bifurcating branches, and k is a constant. The Wang et al. (1995) model is limited to conditions with unisize sediment and application of the Engelund & Hansen (1967) sediment transport relation. They assume the same constant base level for the two bifurcating branches, and constant water and sediment discharges in the upstream channel. A mathematical stability analysis is conducted to predict the stability of the equilibrium states. Depending on the exponent k they find a stable equilibrium state with two downstream branches or a stable state with one branch only (i.e. the other branch has silted up). Here we extend the Wang et al. (1995) model to conditions with gravel and sand and study the stability of the equilibrium states

    July 21, 2007 (Pages 3353-4040)

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