National Technical Reports Library

The National Technical Information Service acquires, indexes, abstracts, and archives the largest collection of U.S. government-sponsored technical reports in existence. The NTRL offers online, free and open access to these authenticated government technical reports. Technical reports and documents in its repository may be available online for free either from the issuing federal agency, the U.S. Government Publishing Office’s Federal Digital System website, or through search engines.

Details

Mass and Salt Budgets for a Region of the Continental Shelf in the Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight.

DE2004809184

Publication Date	2001
Personal Author	Kim, Y. Y.; Weatherly, G. L.; Pietrafesa, L. J.
Page Count	26
Abstract	Two field studies were conducted across and along the continental shelf, one from February to May 1996 (deployment 1) and the other from July to October 1996 (deployment 2), in part to determine the mass and salt budgets of shelf water from south of Cape Henry to north of Cape Hatteras, the southernmost portion of the Mid-Atlantic Bight. The temporal means of current meter records indicated that most of the water enters the region across its northern boundary near the shelf break as part of a southward, alongshore current and exits the southeast corner as a southeastward flowing current. Estimates of the volume transports indicated that not all the transport across the northern boundary was accounted for by transport across the southern boundary, and that the remainder occurred as a broad, diffusive flow across the eastern boundary at the shelf break. Time series of volume transport across northern and southern boundaries were very similar and associated with variations in the alongshore wind stress and sea level, indicative of a geostrophic balance. Examination of the individual current meter records indicated these fluctuations were very barotropic even during deployment 2, which included the stratified summer season. Time series of the volume transport across the eastern boundary at the shelf break strongly mirrored the volume transport across the northern boundary minus that across the southern boundary, suggesting that the inferred eastern boundary transport was real and accommodated whatever the southern boundary could not. The turbulent salt flux across each boundary contributes very little to the net respective mass fluxes because the salt fluxes are almost governed by current velocity fields. The instantaneous and mean salt fluxes across each boundary were very well approximated by the instantaneous and mean volume transports across the boundary times the deployment average salinity across that boundary, respectively. The Ocean Margins Program (OMP) moored current and salinity observations appear sufficient to make estimates of the mean and time-dependent mass and salt balance.
Keywords	Salt balance Mass balance Salinity Time-series analysis Water currents Continental shelf Mass transfer Mid-Atlantic Bight
Source Agency	Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee
Corporate Authors	Florida State Univ., Tallahassee.; Department of Energy, Washington, DC.; North Carolina State Univ. at Raleigh. Dept. of Marine, Earth and
Supplemental Notes	Prepared in cooperation with North Carolina State Univ. at Raleigh. Dept. of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Sponsored by Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Document Type	Technical Report
NTIS Issue Number	200509

Mass and Salt Budgets for a Region of the Continental Shelf in the Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight.

Mass and Salt Budgets for a Region of the Continental Shelf in the Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight.
DE2004809184

Publication Date	2001
Personal Author	Kim, Y. Y.; Weatherly, G. L.; Pietrafesa, L. J.
Page Count	26
Abstract	Two field studies were conducted across and along the continental shelf, one from February to May 1996 (deployment 1) and the other from July to October 1996 (deployment 2), in part to determine the mass and salt budgets of shelf water from south of Cape Henry to north of Cape Hatteras, the southernmost portion of the Mid-Atlantic Bight. The temporal means of current meter records indicated that most of the water enters the region across its northern boundary near the shelf break as part of a southward, alongshore current and exits the southeast corner as a southeastward flowing current. Estimates of the volume transports indicated that not all the transport across the northern boundary was accounted for by transport across the southern boundary, and that the remainder occurred as a broad, diffusive flow across the eastern boundary at the shelf break. Time series of volume transport across northern and southern boundaries were very similar and associated with variations in the alongshore wind stress and sea level, indicative of a geostrophic balance. Examination of the individual current meter records indicated these fluctuations were very barotropic even during deployment 2, which included the stratified summer season. Time series of the volume transport across the eastern boundary at the shelf break strongly mirrored the volume transport across the northern boundary minus that across the southern boundary, suggesting that the inferred eastern boundary transport was real and accommodated whatever the southern boundary could not. The turbulent salt flux across each boundary contributes very little to the net respective mass fluxes because the salt fluxes are almost governed by current velocity fields. The instantaneous and mean salt fluxes across each boundary were very well approximated by the instantaneous and mean volume transports across the boundary times the deployment average salinity across that boundary, respectively. The Ocean Margins Program (OMP) moored current and salinity observations appear sufficient to make estimates of the mean and time-dependent mass and salt balance.
Keywords	Salt balance Mass balance Salinity Time-series analysis Water currents Continental shelf Mass transfer Mid-Atlantic Bight
Source Agency	Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee
Corporate Authors	Florida State Univ., Tallahassee.; Department of Energy, Washington, DC.; North Carolina State Univ. at Raleigh. Dept. of Marine, Earth and
Supplemental Notes	Prepared in cooperation with North Carolina State Univ. at Raleigh. Dept. of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Sponsored by Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Document Type	Technical Report
NTIS Issue Number	200509