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The Dynamical Systems Approach to Studying Transport in the Chesapeake Bay: An Application of Synoptic Lagrangian Maps
Des Small, Lyon Lanerolle, Stephen Wiggins
University of Bristol, CSDL/OCS/NOS/NOAA
des.small@bristol.ac.uk(Abstract received 04/30/2005 for session B)
ABSTRACT
The Residence time parameter in a bay or estuary can provide critical information about its water quality and usefulness to humans. Synoptic Lagrangian Maps (SLM) are a new tool arising from dynamical systems theory for understanding transport phenomena. They can be used in conjunction with hydrodynamic model outputs (currents) with sufficient spatio-temporal resolution where, effectively, an unlimited number of trajectories can be generated. They provide a way of compressing this large amount of trajectory data in a way that shows the spatio-temporal structure of transport from a global point of view. In the present research, residence times and SLMs have been calculated using hydrodynamic model outputs provided by Rutgers University's Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) and the Chesapeake Bay application includes tidal, river and surface forcing. A comparison of these two diagnostics is made. The usefulness of other dynamical systems diagnostics, such as Lyapunov exponents and invariant manifolds, is also considered.
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2005 LAPCOD Meeting, Lerici, Italy, June 13-17, 2005