Dye Dispersion in the Tidal Front: Model-Observation Comparison

Houghton, R.1, C. Chen2 and Q. Xu2
1Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964
2School for Marine Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, New Bedford, MA 02744-1221

We have applied the same analysis techniques used with the observational dye experiments in the GLOBEC phase 3 field work on model calculation results of dye dispersion. The objective is to test the model's performance before it is used to calculate the frontal exchange of other variables such as nutrients. We will compare results from various iterations of the model calculation.

In general, there is qualitative agreement between observational and model results. It is clear that model grid spacing less than 1 km is required. There has been difficulty in getting a realistic cross-bank scale of the model tidal front. The cross-front velocities are about twice the observed but the tim e dependence of the dye patch variance is comparable.

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