Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
8-1-2014
Abstract
The age of water (AW) concept is applied in the Pearl River Estuary to investigate the water exchange process in three-dimensional space and its seasonal variation. A three-dimensional AW model is built based on the advanced hydrodynamic model MIKE3, and the model has been verified against a field survey dataset in the Pearl River Estuary. Using this model, the spatio-temporal distributions of water age are numerically determined in response to hydrodynamic factors. The predictions indicate that the mean AW values inside the Pearl River Estuary during the wet season and the dry season are approximately 10 days and 25 days, respectively. In general, lower AW values are observed at the surface, with higher values occurring near the bed, while in the wet season, a more obvious AW stratification can be observed. A comparison between the barotropic and baroclinic predictions indicates that the density-induced circulation causes a significant decrease in the exchange timescales.
Comments
Session R24, Coastal and Estuarine Modeling II