Mark J. Halverson

The Circulation and Residence Time of the Strait of Georgia using a Simple Mixing-box Approach

Abstract New observations in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada show that temperature and dissolved oxygen have a pronounced seasonal cycle, with a spatially varying phase. Phase lags in oscillating systems arise due to internal time scales which can be interpreted in fluid systems as residence times. Exploiting phase we construct a quantitative and internally consistent circulation scheme for this body of water after dividing it into four regions: the Fraser River plume, the surface waters down to 50 m, the intermediate waters down to 200 m, and the deep water. In this scheme the intermediate water, the largest region by volume, is continually renewed, and its characteristics change in response to continuous changes in the characteristics of source waters. The dependence of the estuarine circulation on variations in fresh inflow is weak. The deep water is volumetrically less important, but seasonal changes in the density of oceanic source waters can produce a variation in the overall circulation by driving an additional inflow which leads to both deep renewal and increased upwelling. In turn, this increased upwelling results in lower surface temperatures than might otherwise be expected. Intermediate water residence times are about 160 days. Deep water is renewed once per year in summer and is affected only by vertical diffusion during the rest of the year. Surface water residence times for the entire Strait are a few months at most, but the Fraser River plume has a freshwater residence time of approximately 1 day. In addition, we find that the residence time of oceanic source waters in the Strait is 1.7 years due to a substantial recirculation in Haro Strait. Other consequences of this scheme are consistent with independent estimates of horizontal transports, air‐sea heat fluxes, subsurface oxygen (O2) utilization, and primary production. Finally, analysis of the spatial phase variations suggests that the intermediate inflow enters the Strait as a boundary current along the slopes of the Fraser delta.

Tide, Wind, and River Forcing of the Surface Currents in the Fraser River Plume

ABSTRACT A long-term record of surface currents from a high-frequency radar system, along with near-surface hydrographic transects, moored current meter records, and satellite imagery, are analyzed to determine the relative importance of river discharge, wind, and tides in driving the surface flow in the Fraser River plume. The observations show a great deal of oceanographic and instrumental variability. However, averaged quantities yielded robust results. The effect of river flow, which determines buoyancy and inertia near the river mouth, was found by taking a long-term average. The resulting flow field was dominated by a jet with two asymmetric gyres; the anticyclonic gyre to the north had flow speeds consistent with geostrophy. The mean flow speed near the river mouth was 14.3 cm s–1, while the flow further afield was 5 cm s–1 or less. Wind stress and surface currents were highly coherent in the subtidal frequency band. Northwesterly winds drive a surface flow to the southeast at speeds of nearly 30 cm s–1. Southeasterly winds drive a surface flow to the northwest at speeds reaching 20 cm s–1; however, there is more spatial variability in speed and direction relative to the northwesterly wind case. A harmonic analysis was used to extract the tidally driven flows. Ellipse parameters for the major tidal constituents varied considerably in both alignment and aspect ratio over the radar domain, in direct contrast to a barotropic model which predicted rectilinear flow along the Strait of Georgia. This is a result of water filling and draining the shallow mud flats north of the Frasers main channel. The M2 velocities at the surface were also weaker than their barotropic counterparts. However, the shallow water constituent MK3 was enhanced at the surface and nearly as strong as the mean flow, implying that non-linear interactions are important to surface dynamics.

Multi-timescale analysis of the salinity and algal biomass of the Fraser River plume from repeated ferry transects

Aug 2009 Ph.D Physical Oceanography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC Dissertation: Multi-timescale analysis of the salinity and algal biomass of the Fraser River plume from repeated ferry transects Advisor: Prof. Rich Pawlowicz May 2002 MSc Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI May 2000 BSc Summa cum laude Physics,Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN BSc Summa cum laude Astronomy Sep 1997 Manufacturing Engineering Major, University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, WI

Dependence of 25-MHz HF Radar Working Range on Near-Surface Conductivity, Sea State, and Tides

AbstractA 1.6-yr time series of radial current velocity from a 25-MHz high-frequency radar system located near a coastal river plume is analyzed to determine how the working range varies in response to changing near-surface conductivity, sea state, and tides. Working range is defined as the distance to the farthest radial velocity solution along a fixed bearing. A comparison to spatially resolved near-surface conductivity measurements from an instrumented ferry shows that fluctuations in conductivity had the largest impact of the three factors considered. The working range increases nearly linearly with increasing conductivity, almost doubling from 19.4 km at 0.9 S m−1 to 37.4 km at 3.5 S m−1, which yields a slope of 7.0 km per S m−1. The next largest factor was sea state, which was investigated using measured winds. The working range increases linearly at a rate of 1 km per m s−1 of wind speed over the range of 0.5–6.5 m s−1, but it decreases weakly for wind speeds higher than 7.5 m s−1. Finally, a power...

Advection, Surface Area, and Sediment Load of the Fraser River Plume Under Variable Wind and River Forcing

ABSTRACT The Fraser River is the source of most particulate matter in the Strait of Georgia, and its dispersal is modulated by the Fraser’s plume. Here we examine the plume’s shape, location, and area, and the variation of these parameters with changes in wind and river forcing by examining a 13-year time series of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery for the concentration of suspended particulate matter (SPM). Plume shape and its variations are quantified by dividing the 904 images in this time series into subsets showing conditions under specified wind and river flow conditions and forming a composite image for each subset. Quantitative analysis of scalar quantities like plume area and mean plume SPM are based on calculated values for all individual images. The plume area increases linearly with river flow, changing by a factor of 10 between lowest and highest flows. Mean plume SPM also changes with flow but only by a factor of two. The surface area of the plume is almost completely unaffected by wind conditions. Plume location, however, is very sensitive to both wind speed and direction. It can reach across the Strait at highest river flows and is advected either northwest or southeast along the Strait in the same direction as winds on daily time scales. We also estimate the residence time of sediment in the plume to be only a few days, allowing the plume itself to reshape rapidly over short time scales in response to weather conditions.