Physical response of the coastal ocean to Hurricane Isabel near landfall
- UNCW Author/Contributor (non-UNCW co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Frederick Morton Bingham, Professor (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW )
- Web Site: http://library.uncw.edu/
Abstract: Abstract. Hurricane Isabel made landfall near Drum Inlet,
North Carolina on 18 September 2003. In nearby Onslow
Bay an array of 5 moorings captured the response of
the coastal ocean to the passage of the storm by measuring
currents, surface waves, bottom pressure, temperature
and salinity. Temperatures across the continental shelf decreased
by 1–3 degrees C, consistent with a surface heat flux estimate
of 750W/m2. Salinity decreased at most mooring locations.
A calculation at one of the moorings estimates rainfall
of 11 cm and a net addition of fresh water at the surface of
8 cm. The low-pass current field shows a shelf-wide movement
of water, first to the southwest, with an abrupt reversal
to the northeast along the shelf after landfall. Close analysis
of this reversal shows it to be a disturbance propagating offshore
at a speed somewhat less than the local shallow water
wave speed. The high-pass current field at one of the moorings
shows a significant increase in kinetic energy at periods
between 10 min and 2 h during the approach of the storm.
This high-pass flow is isotropic and has a short (<5 m) vertical
decorrelation scale. It appears to be closely associated
with the winds, Finally we examined the surface wave field at
one of the moorings. It shows the swell energy peaking well
before the wind waves. At the height of the storm, as the
winds rotated rapidly in the cyclonic sense, the wind wave
direction rotated as well, with a lag of 45–90 degrees.
Physical response of the coastal ocean to Hurricane Isabel near landfall
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Bingham, F. (2007). Physical response of the coastal ocean to Hurricane Isabel near landfall. Ocean Science, 3, 159–171. Retrieved from www.ocean-sci.net/3/159/2007/. [© Author(s) 2007. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.]
- Language: English
- Date: 2008
- Keywords
- Hurricane Isabel 2003, Oceanography--Atlantic Ocean
- Subjects
- Hurricane Isabel, 2003
- Oceanography--Atlantic Ocean