A fluorescent sand-tracer experiment was performed at Comporta Beach (Portugal) with the aim of acquiring longshore sediment transport data on a reflective beach, the optimization of field and laboratory tracer procedures and the improvement of the conceptual model used to support tracer data interpretation.
The field experiment was performed on a mesotidal reflective beach face in low energetic conditions (significant wave height between 0.4 and 0.5 m). Two different colour tracers (orange and blue) were injected at low tide and sampled in the two subsequent low tides using a high resolution 3D grid extending 450 m alongshore and 30 m cross-shore. Marked sand was detected using an automatic digital image processing system developed in the scope of the present experiment.
Results for the two colour tracers show a remarkable coherence, with high recovery rates attesting data validity. Sand tracer displayed a high advection velocity, but with distinct vertical distribution patterns in the two tides: in the first tide there was a clear decrease in tracer advection velocity with depth while in the second tide, the tracer exhibited an almost uniform vertical velocity distribution. This differing behaviour suggests that, in the first tide, the tracer had not reached equilibrium within the transport system, pointing to a considerable time lag between injection and complete mixing. This issue has important implications for the interpretation of tracer data, indicating that short term tracer experiments tend to overestimate transport rates. In this work, therefore, longshore estimates were based on tracer results obtained during the second tide.
The estimated total longshore transport rate at Comporta Beach was 2 × 10− 3 m3/s, more than four times larger than predicted using standard empirical longshore formulas. This discrepancy, which results from the unusually large active moving layer observed during the experiment, confirms the idea that most common longshore transport equations under-estimate total sediment transport in plunging/surging waves. 相似文献
The steady response of the ventilated thermocline to an increase in Ekman pumping is investigated, focusing on the effect
of the mixed layer depth distribution on the subsurface density anomaly. We consider only the subtropical gyre, and the mixed
layer is assumed to be deep in the northwest and shallow elsewhere with a narrow transition zone separating the deep and shallow
mixed layer regions. At the intersection of this narrow transition zone and the outcrop line, low potential vorticity fluid
is subducted into and ventilates the thermocline. In such a situation, an enhancement of the Ekman pumping confined to the
northern subtropical gyre leads to pronounced subsurface cold anomalies in the southern subtropics, which is free of anomalous
forcing. These density anomalies are much greater than those that occur when either the mixed layer depth is zonally uniform
or the Ekman pumping is enhanced in the whole subtropical gyre. They are caused by anomalous changes in the trajectory of
the low potential vorticity fluid in response to anomalous Sverdrup flow.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. 相似文献
We have developed an analytical treatment for the wave-induced response of a seabed with inhomogeneous permeability, by employing the boundary layer approximation. By assuming an exponential function for vertically distributed permeability, the inhomogeneous consolidation equation was formulated as Bessel's differential equation. Subsequently, we proposed some representative quantities for examining the effects of inhomogeneity of permeability. The main effects of inhomogeneity are that the boundary layer becomes thinner and the phase delay in the direction of depth becomes larger as the inhomogeneity becomes significant. In addition, it was shown that the boundary layer is properly evaluated by using the averaged permeability. 相似文献
