Intensification of Subtidal Surface Currents Over a Deep Channel in the Upper Chesapeake Bay

Abstract

A three-dimensional hydrodynamic model of the Upper Chesapeake Bay was used to examine the nature and cause of an intensification of subtidal, southward surface current in the middle reaches of the basin. The deep navigation channel along the eastern boundary was found to be ultimately responsible. The deep channel allows the density and tidally-induced subtidal currents to intensify over it, producing the eastern intensification. Both mechanisms operate in the non-rotating limit and consequently do not diminish with vanishing effect of the earth's rotation. Density-induced forcing is predominantly baroclinic, generating a northward undercurrent in the deep channel and a southward current aloft which attenuates westward. Tidal forcing is mostly barotropic, producing southward mean current in the deep channel and return flow to the west. Historic data lend support to the model results.