Document Type
Report
Publication Title
Link Foundation Ocean Engineering and Instrumentation Fellowship Reports
Abstract
The confluence of the river and ocean is a crucial and critical coastal region. The river inputs can vary from sediments and nutrients to wastewater and fertilizers. Notably, water quality, coastal management, and overall ecosystem health are directly impacted by these constituents. Strategies to maintain coastal health, mitigate anthropogenic impacts, and predict the fate of riverine biogeochemical outputs require reliable knowledge of the physical processes that mix the outflow and ambient waters. These local dynamics are highly influenced by tides, river discharge, winds, currents, and turbulent mechanisms. Mixing and turbulence of river plumes occur across engineering to geostrophic scales, ranging from the frontal propagation [O(km)] to turbulent motion [O(<1cm)]. These features cannot be resolved by remote sensing or entirely sampled by moorings and boat surveys. Consequently, they demand creative data sampling plans and complex data processing to fully characterize this evolving and migrating environment. My main objective is to investigate the role of mixing processes at the horizontal boundary between the fresh buoyant discharge and ocean waters, which we call front.
Publication Date
9-2023
Recommended Citation
Braga, Ágata Piffer, "Mixing freshwater into the ocean: Using an AUV to study river plume evolution" (2023). Link Foundation Ocean Engineering and Instrumentation Fellowship Reports. 30.
https://repository.fit.edu/link_ocean/30
Comments
Link Fellowship: 2022-2023