The project combines field measurements with numerical modeling to investigate tide-induced residual circulation and dispersion in coastal embayments. A shipboard Doppler current profiler and moored current meters will be deployed in Vineyard Sound in a two-month field program designed to observe the spatial variations in tidal and residual flow around a headland. The numerical modeling will involve three components: a set of idealized studies of tidal flow around a headland; realistic simulations of the field site and of the basinwide circulation in Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound; and numerical Lagrangian drifter experiments in the idealized and physically realistic domains. The overall objective of this research is to characterize advective and dispersive transport in coastal bays and well-mixed estuaries caused by tide-induced circulation.
