The PI proposes to undertake field experiments in the region of the Delaware Coastal Current with the goal of investigating the across- shelf mixing of buoyant water from the coastal current into shelf water. The three major objectives are: (1) to identify the principal physical processes that produce across-shelf mixing, (2) to construct the balance of salt flux for the coastal current from observations of the subtidal current and salinity field, and (3) to obtain a quantitative and statistical significant relationship between the buoyancy flux (or salt flux) from the coastal current source region and the expected principal forcing agents of river discharge and alongshore wind stress.
