Challenges of Applying Normal Mode Analysis to the Chesapeake Bay

• Author: K. Mcilhany, US Naval Academy.


• Names of other authors: R. Malek-Madani.


• Oral or poster: oral.


• Downloadable presentation/poster: click here.


• Abstract:
  The Chesapeake Bay will be the focus of this on-going study. Normal Mode Analysis (NMA) is used to question the applicability of certain classes of Boundary Value Problems (BVPs). The key question asked in this study is under what conditions are single modes driven by the boundary conditions. When boundary conditions move a system away from a single mode, how are the other modes populated and in what time scales. The velocity fields calculated will be COMSOL for toy models and POP or ROMS for geo-physical flows. The power spectrum obtained from NMA will be the common metric referred to during this study. The time dependence of modes will be considered compared to the relative population of modes, in other words, do power spectra distribute themselves as a (1/f)^2, exp(-E/kbT) or some other configuration when not locked into a single mode.