The role of topography in small well-mixed bays, with application to the lagoon of Mururoa

[en] The present study aims to better understand how bathymetry and wind field interact to shape the circulation in well-mixed bays with particular emphasis on the lagoon of Mururoa. The simple model of Csanady (J. Phys. Oceanography 3 (1973) 429) is re-examined and some new analytical properties of the velocity distribution are derived. An extended version of the Csanady model, called the idealised model (IM), is then applied to the lagoon of Mururoa located in the Pacific. The circulation obtained by IM compares well with the circulation simulated by a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model. Our results show that IM provides a simple and powerful heuristic tool to gain more insight into the dominant dynamical regime of the lagoon. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Research Center/Unit :

Centre Interfacultaire de Recherches en Océanologie - MARE - GHER

Disciplines :

Earth sciences & physical geography

Author, co-author :

Mathieu, Pierre-Philippe; University of Reading > Department of Meteorology > Center for Global Atmospheric Modelling

Deleersnijder, Eric; Université Catholique de Louvain-La-Neuve > Unité ASTR

Cushman-Roisin, Benoît; Dartmouth College > Thayer School of Engineering

Beckers, Jean-Marie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys.

Bolding, Karsten; European Commission > Joint Research Center (JRC) > Marine Environment Unit

Language :

English

Title :

The role of topography in small well-mixed bays, with application to the lagoon of Mururoa

Publication date :

June 2002

Journal title :

Continental Shelf Research

ISSN :

0278-4343

Publisher :

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, Oxford, United Kingdom

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

1379-1395

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 16 January 2009

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Bibliography

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