Eiji Masunaga

An observational and numerical study of river plume dynamics in Otsuchi Bay, Japan

A newly developed tow-yo profiler (YODA Profiler) and a fully nonhydrostatic numerical model, SUNTANS, are used in this study to investigate river plume mixing in Otsuchi Bay, a ria estuary located in Iwate, Japan. Several field campaigns were conducted in the bay during early summer, late summer, and late winter. The YODA Profiler reveals fine features related to a shallow river plume that experiences rapid mixing events during the summer campaigns with a time scale of O(1) hour. These events coincide with strong baroclinic currents and large fluctuations in thermocline and pycnocline depths related to shoaling internal tides. The combined effects of wind stress and baroclinic flow appear to generate a strong shear near the surface layer and enhance mixing of the river plume, with typical eddy diffusivity values of O(10−4) m2 s−1. To investigate the physical mechanisms involved, numerical simulations are conducted with tidal and wind forcing. Analysis of tidal forcing mechanisms reveals that mixing near the river mouth (and upstream) is dominated by the barotropic tide, while turbulent mixing in the middle of the bay is significantly enhanced by the baroclinic internal tide. Wind forcing is also important for river plume dynamics; along-channel wind forcing mixes the river plume and transports it horizontally. Overall, this study suggests that all three forcing mechanisms (barotropic tide, baroclinic tide, and wind) are important for mixing processes of the river plume in Otsuchi Bay.

Strong turbulent mixing induced by internal bores interacting with internal tide‐driven vertically sheared flow

We observed the formation of an internal bore interacting with the vertically sheared flow generated during the previous phase of the internal tide, which resulted in strong turbulent mixing. The rate of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation reached on the order of 10 W kg 1 during the event. Numerical simulations reproduced the observed interaction of internal bores with the sheared flow and verified the hypothesized breaking and mixing mechanism. The numerical results indicated that the Iribarren number, or the ratio of the topographic slope to the internal wave slope, plays a major role in the mixing intensity and types of internal bores. It was found that waves with low Iribarren numbers lead to bores that interact with vertically sheared flows induced by the previous phase of the internal tide and are more likely to produce strong wave breaking and mixing.

Dynamics and Energetics of Trapped Diurnal Internal Kelvin Waves around a Midlatitude Island

AbstractThe generation of trapped and radiating internal tides around Izu‐Oshima Island located off Sagami Bay, Japan, is investigated using the three-dimensional Stanford Unstructured Nonhydrostatic Terrain-following Adaptive Navier–Stokes Simulator (SUNTANS) that is validated with observations of isotherm displacements in shallow water. The model is forced by barotropic tides, which generate strong baroclinic internal tides in the study region. Model results showed that when diurnal K1 barotropic tides dominate, resonance of a trapped internal Kelvin wave leads to large-amplitude internal tides in shallow waters on the coast. This resonance produces diurnal motions that are much stronger than the semidiurnal motions. The weaker, freely propagating, semidiurnal internal tides are generated on the western side of the island, where the M2 internal tide beam angle matches the topographic slope. The internal wave energy flux due to the diurnal internal tides is much higher than that of the semidiurnal tides ...

Coastal observation systems to monitor physical, chemical, and biological parameters

We have developed a free-fall multi-parameter profiler (YODA Profiler) to measure various physical and biological parameters in coastal ocean. We found internal bores create a strong mixing event. Sediment resuspension is associated with the mixing event and also AZFP detected fish school at the front of bore. We have deployed a cable observatory system (Oshima Coastal Environment data Acquisition Network System, OCEANS) in a coastal area to monitor coastal ecosystem continuously. OCEANS can measure various physical, chemical and biological parameters simultaneously, and operates a plankton imaging system (Continuous Plankton Imaging and Classification System, CPICS). Based on acquired images of phytoplankton and zooplankton, we are investigating how planktonic biodiversity is affected by multi-scale physical processes, such as Kuroshio and internal waves. We are developing a technique to predict the biodiversity of plankton from three-dimensional hydrodynamic model using a newly developed plankton ecosys...