Wave mixing rise inferred from Lyapunov exponents
Galan, A; Orfila, A; Simarro, G; Hernández-Carrasco, I; López, C
Environmental fluid mechanics 12, 291-300 (2012)
Environmental fluid mechanics 12, 291-300 (2012)
We study the horizontal surface mixing and the transport induced by waves
in a coastal environment. A comparative study is addressed by computing the Lagrangian
Coherent Structures, via Finite Size Lyapunov Exponents, that arise in two
different numerical settings: with and without wave coupled to currents. In general,we observe that mixing is increased in the area due to waves. Besides, the methodology
presented here is tested by deploying a set of eight Lagrangian drifters at different
locations. This dynamical approach is shown as a valuable tool to extract information
about transport, mixing and residence embedded in the Eulerian time dependent
velocity fields obtained from numerical models.
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