Coastal Land Air Sea Interaction: “the” beach towers
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Authors
MacMahan, James H.
Koscinski, Jessica S.
Ortiz-Suslow, David G.
Haus, Brian K.
Thornton, Edward B.
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2016-12-13
Date
Publisher
AGU
Language
Abstract
As part of the Coastal Land Air Sea Interaction (CLASI) experiment, an alongshore array of 6-m high towers instrumented with ultrasonic 3D anemometers and temperature-relative humidity sensors were deployed at five sandy beaches near the high-tide line in Monterey Bay, CA, in May-June 2016. A cross-shore array of towers was also deployed from within the active surfzone to the toe of the dune at one beach. In addition, waves and ocean temperature were obtained along the 10m isobath for each beach. The dissipative surfzone was O(80m) wide. The wave energy varies among the beaches owing to sheltering and refraction by the Monterey Canyon and headlands. The tides are semi-diurnal mixed, meso-tidal with a maximum tidal range of 2m. This results in a variable beach width from the tower to the tidal line. Footprint analysis for estimating the source region for the turbulent momentum fluxes, suggests that the observations represent three scenarios described as primarily ocean, mixed beach and ocean, and primarily beach. The direct-estimate of the atmospheric stability by the sonic anemometer suggest that all of the beaches are mostly unstable except for a few occurrences in the evening during low wind conditions. The onshore neutral drag coefficient (Cd) estimated at 10m heights is 3-5 times larger than open ocean estimates. Minimal variability was found in Cd based on the footprint analysis. Beach- specific spatial variability in Cd was found related to atmospheric stability and wave energy.
Type
Abstract
Description
2016 AGU Fall Meeting
Series/Report No
Department
Meteorology
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
1 p.
Citation
MacMahan, James H., et al. "Coastal Land Air Sea Interaction:" the" beach towers." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts. Vol. 2016. 2016.
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.