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Study of Circulation in the Tillamook Bay and the Surrounding Wetland Applying Triple-Nested Models Downscaling from Global Ocean to Estuary
Citation:
Ko, D., C. Brown, R. Gould, AND Jim Hagy. Study of Circulation in the Tillamook Bay and the Surrounding Wetland Applying Triple-Nested Models Downscaling from Global Ocean to Estuary. AGU Fall Meeting, New Orleans, LA, December 11 - 15, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
The US Navy Research Laboratory in collaboration with the US EPA is developing a coupled physical and water quality model of the Tillamook Estuary and coastal shelf. This model will be used to identify local factors influencing the expression of hypoxia and nutrient-enhanced acidification within the Tillamook Estuary. This poster describes the physical model developed which includes inputs of 5 rivers that flowing into the estuary, exchange with the coastal ocean, and flooding and drying of the adjacent wetlands.
Description:
To study the circulation and water quality in the Tillamook Bay, Oregon, a high-resolution estuarine model that covers the shallow bay and the surrounding wetland has been developed. The estuarine circulation at Tillamook Bay is mainly driven by the tides and the river flows and to a lesser extent by the local wind, evaporation and rainfall. Although the Tillamook Bay is a semi-enclosed bay with a very narrow water way to the coastal sea, its circulation is nevertheless connected to the open ocean. A triple-nested model, therefore, was applied to connect the East Pacific Ocean to the Oregon coastal sea then to the Tillamook Bay which requires very high resolution. The model downscaling was done from the Global HYCOM at ~10 km to the Oregon coastal NCOM at ~1 km and then to the Tillamook Bay estuarine model at ~100 m resolution applying POM. This high-resolution Tillamook Bay model has a wet and dry capability to deal with extreme shallow area in the bay that includes wetland. The model is forced with tides and circulation from coastal model, real-time river flows from USGS and Oregon Water Resources Department, and wind and surface fluxes from COAMPS that include evaporation and rainfall. A biogeochemical model (CGEM) will be coupled to address hypoxia and acidification issues.