Nearshore plume dynamics: Airborne observations and modeling of surf-shelf exchange

This project advance understanding of the nearshore environment by examining possible modifications to rip currents by warm and cold waters along a coastal strip. The project will examine such modifications also caused by different types of winds and waves. Research will scrutinize data already available and results from a mathematical model.

Analysis will place rip-current behavior in a framework that considers different forces that modify the currents. The study will provide helpful information for surfers and swimmers, and for coastal zone managers to determine the fate of pollutants in the beach zone, from behind the breaking waves to the coastline. In general, the study will benefit society by improving safety in the beach zone. It will support one early-career scientist and a post-doctoral scholar.

This project will study nearshore buoyant plumes related to rip currents and the corresponding flows. The study will explore the connection between buoyant waters and rip currents, and how the connection may change with different stratification conditions and forcing agents: wind, waves, and density gradients. Research will combine infrared airborne and in-situ observations (in hand) with idealized COAWST numerical modeling.

The study will seek to determine the relative influence of plume buoyancy contrasts in a) driving rip currents and b) establishing cross-shelf exchange of mass. By determining such relative influence, the study will expand knowledge on bathymetrically related rip currents. This work seeks to place numerical results in a dynamical framework that considers the parameter space of Froude and Simpson non-dimensional numbers.

As Broader Impacts, the study will address the influence of buoyancy effects on rip currents, which has been neglected before. Also as Broader Impacts, the study will include training of one post-doctoral scholar and one undergraduate student, and support for an early-career scientist.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.