Dynamics of Ripples on the Sandy Inner Shelf off Martha's Vineyard: Surveys, Field Measurements, and Models

摘要

The long-term goal of our research is to improve fundamental understanding and numerical representation of coastal sediment-transport processes. We participated in EuroSTRATAFORM project, where our goal has been to improve quantitative models describing the relationships among meteorological and oceanographic forcing, freshwater influx, particle resuspension, and transport and accumulation of sediment in the coastal ocean. We helped obtain data for the Optics Acoustics and Stress In Situ (OASIS) project with many of the same goals and additional focus on the interaction between bed and suspended sediments and the influence of fine sediments on optical properties in the water column. We are funded through the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology Program to help a National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP)-funded partnership develop a community sediment-transport modeling system (CSTMS). Quantitative understanding of sedimentary processes is important to the Navy because they define environmental conditions in coastal regions, including current speeds, turbulence, water-column turbidity, and bottom acoustic properties. They are also of great interest to geologists and coastal resource managers.