Measurements of a small scale eddy at a tidal inlet using an unmanned automated boat

Abstract

An unmanned automated boat equipped with an acoustic Doppler current profiler was used in field surveys at a tidal inlet, the Southwest Pass of Vermillion Bay, Louisiana on Sept 6 and Oct 6, 2007. During the first survey, under calm weather conditions, a small scale eddy with a diameter of 300 m was discovered with strong upwelling and downwelling zones. A detailed analysis of this small eddy shows that the eddy's velocity field is relatively uniform in the vertical and the eddy is formed by a flow convergence, tidal velocity shear induced relative vorticity, and the interaction between the horizontal flows and bathymetry. The major upwelling area is where an uphill flow occurs while the major downwelling area is where a downhill flow occurs. The vorticity of this eddy is on the order of 0.013 s − 1 , which is two orders-of-magnitude larger than the planetary vorticity, and one-order-of magnitude larger than that in a typical tidal inlet without eddies. The Coriolis effect is thus insignificant and the generation of the eddy cannot be affected by the earth rotation. The maximum upwelling and downwelling velocities exceed 0.3 m/s. This high vertical velocity in a tidal inlet does not appear to have been reported before. The second survey, conducted under a thunder storm condition, did not reveal a similar eddy at the same location during roughly the same tidal phase. Though the measurements of 3-D flow structure under a thunder storm condition in a tidal channel does not appear to have been reported before, the second survey is of important value in providing support of the mechanism of the eddy formation during the first survey: the wind tends to produce downwind flow in shallow water than in deep water, producing a velocity shear counterproductive to the formation of the eddy. Therefore, the second survey under a thunder storm condition did not show an eddy. A scaling analysis of the non-hydrostatic flow shows that the uphill and downhill flows introduce a non-hydrostatic flow component proportional to the square of the bottom slope which leads to the conclusion that the non-hydrostatic flow component affects less than 10% of the vertical momentum balance.