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Internal waves; Coastal and nearshore processes; Coastal upwelling; Upwelling front; Diurnal wind forcing
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Observations Of Nonlinear Internal Waves At A Persistent Coastal Upwelling Front, Ryan K. Walter, Marek Stastna, C. Brock Woodson, Stephen G. Monismith
Observations Of Nonlinear Internal Waves At A Persistent Coastal Upwelling Front, Ryan K. Walter, Marek Stastna, C. Brock Woodson, Stephen G. Monismith
Physics
We collected high-resolution observations of nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs) at a persistent upwelling front in the shallow coastal environment (~20 m) of northern Monterey Bay, CA. The coastal upwelling front forms between recently upwelled waters and warmer stratified waters that are trapped in the bay (upwelling shadow). The front propagates up and down the coast in the along-shore direction as a buoyant plume front due to modulation by strong diurnal wind forcing. The evolution of the coastal upwelling front, and the subsequent modulation of background environmental conditions, is examined using both individual events and composite day averages. We demonstrate that …