Rapid assessment of littoral ocean physical and chemical conditions has represented a great challenge in recent years. For the physical part, time constraint may limit to using the barotropic mode. But because rain can be significant in St Andrew Bay system, Florida, fresh water, even when rivers lack, is a prevailing salinity regulator through ground seepage. Therefore, studying the baroclinicity and forcing mechanisms should provide a reasonable guidance help for deciding which will be ignored or included when modeling the area of interest. For the chemical part, considering either national security relevance or shipping hazard, a release of chemicals used in nearby offshore oil platform stands in the domain of possibilities. A coupled hydrodynamic and chemical model, WQMAP and CHEMMAP developed at the Applied Sciences Associates, is used in this study with WQMAP for evaluating baroclinicity and forcing mechanism impacts and with CHEMAP for estimating the consequences of a hypothetical release of chemical. A stochastic model was applied for determining probable distribution and concentration resulting from the release at a given location.

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Thesis (M.S.)--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-118).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Geological Sciences, March 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Using a linear quasi-geostrophic model of large scale spiraling flow and vertical density gradient in the eastern North Pacific, we evaluate the complex dispersion relationships for quasi-geostrophic waves. Our calculations indicate that the geostrophic circulation of the eastern North Pacific can locally convert potential energy to mesoscale kinetic energy on a scale comparable to the observed space and time scale and should be a source of eddy energy, distant from the eddies spawned by the Kuroshio and near the topographic features. But the local growth rates by linear stability analysis do not relate to the observed features of eddy kinetic energy in the eastern ocean; eddy kinetic energy increases to the south and has a maximum in the subtropical region. The non-linear baroclinic instability is analyzed using a three-layer quasi-geostrophic numerical model. Three experiments with different idealized initial mean flow are performed. Local energetics are calculated to highlight the difference between the southward return flow and westward return flow regions. It is found that the boundary flux of mean to eddy kinetic energy conversion is the main differences between two regions: it is large in the westward return flow region but is small in the southward return flow region. Two waves with different characteristics are found: the short waves (periods of 120 days), that propagate to the west and form several wave trains parallel to the southern boundary, and the long waves (periods of 200 days), that propagate to the south-west. These two waves are remarkably similar to the measurements of open ocean eddies at 28°N and 152°W. It is shown that there are high eddy activities in the southward return flow regions by influxes of eddies from other areas, but the southward return flow region is vacant in eddies by outflows of the westward and south-westward propagating waves. / Graduation date: 1987

The large-scale environment can have a significant impact on subtropical precipitating systems via the baroclinicity of the environment and the associated dynamical forcings. The degree of baroclinicity is examined using National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis temperature and zonal wind fields over a two-year period for Southeast Texas, yielding classifications of barotropic, weakly baroclinic, and strongly baroclinic for the background environment. Weakly baroclinic environments accounted for half of the days throughout the two-year period. Barotropic environments occurred most frequently during summer and strongly baroclinic environments occurred most frequently in winter, although less often than weakly baroclinic environments. A climatology of storm types, based on dynamical forcing (i.e., weak forcing, drylines, cold fronts, warm fronts, stationary fronts and upper level disturbances) and precipitation structure (i.e., isolated, scattered, widespread, linear, unorganized and leading-line/trailing stratiform), was compiled and compared to the baroclinicity designations. Non-frontal storm types (i.e., weak forcing, drylines and upper level disturbances) are typical of barotropic environments, while frontal storm types (i.e.,warm, cold and stationary fronts) are typical of weakly and strongly baroclinic environments. Storm events and drop-size distributions (DSD) were identified from surface rainfall data collected by a Joss-Waldvogel disdrometer located in College Station, Texas. The DSDs were compared by baroclinicity and storm type. The barotropic DSD is weighted towards the largest drops because of the stronger convection and stratiform precipitation in the weak forcing and dryline storm types, while the strongly baroclinic DSD is weighted towards the smallest drops because of the weaker convection from the warm fronts and stationary fronts. The weakly baroclinic DSD is weighted more evenly towards small and large drops than the barotropic and strongly baroclinic DSDs because of the conflicting microphysical processes in the different storm types. The microphysical processes within the storms vary by storm type and baroclinicity regime, such that the large-scale environment modifies the precipitation characteristics of storms in SE Texas.

The large-scale environment can have a significant impact on subtropical precipitating systems via the baroclinicity of the environment and the associated dynamical forcings. The degree of baroclinicity is examined using National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis temperature and zonal wind fields over a two-year period for Southeast Texas, yielding classifications of barotropic, weakly baroclinic, and strongly baroclinic for the background environment. Weakly baroclinic environments accounted for half of the days throughout the two-year period. Barotropic environments occurred most frequently during summer and strongly baroclinic environments occurred most frequently in winter, although less often than weakly baroclinic environments. A climatology of storm types, based on dynamical forcing (i.e., weak forcing, drylines, cold fronts, warm fronts, stationary fronts and upper level disturbances) and precipitation structure (i.e., isolated, scattered, widespread, linear, unorganized and leading-line/trailing stratiform), was compiled and compared to the baroclinicity designations. Non-frontal storm types (i.e., weak forcing, drylines and upper level disturbances) are typical of barotropic environments, while frontal storm types (i.e.,warm, cold and stationary fronts) are typical of weakly and strongly baroclinic environments. Storm events and drop-size distributions (DSD) were identified from surface rainfall data collected by a Joss-Waldvogel disdrometer located in College Station, Texas. The DSDs were compared by baroclinicity and storm type. The barotropic DSD is weighted towards the largest drops because of the stronger convection and stratiform precipitation in the weak forcing and dryline storm types, while the strongly baroclinic DSD is weighted towards the smallest drops because of the weaker convection from the warm fronts and stationary fronts. The weakly baroclinic DSD is weighted more evenly towards small and large drops than the barotropic and strongly baroclinic DSDs because of the conflicting microphysical processes in the different storm types. The microphysical processes within the storms vary by storm type and baroclinicity regime, such that the large-scale environment modifies the precipitation characteristics of storms in SE Texas.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 60-61).

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