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Synoptic volumetric variations and flushing of the Tampa Bay estuary

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Abstract

Two types of analyses are used to investigate the synoptic wind-driven flushing of Tampa Bay in response to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle from 1950 to 2007. Hourly sea level elevations from the St. Petersburg tide gauge, and wind speed and direction from three different sites around Tampa Bay are used for the study. The zonal (u) and meridional (v) wind components are rotated clockwise by 40° to obtain axial and co-axial components according to the layout of the bay. First, we use the subtidal observed water level as a proxy for mean tidal height to estimate the rate of volumetric bay outflow. Second, we use wavelet analysis to bandpass sea level and wind data in the time–frequency domain to isolate the synoptic sea level and surface wind variance. For both analyses the long-term monthly climatology is removed and we focus on the volumetric and wavelet variance anomalies. The overall correlation between the Oceanic Niño Index and volumetric analysis is small due to the seasonal dependence of the ENSO response. The mean monthly climatology between the synoptic wavelet variance of elevation and axial winds are in close agreement. During the winter, El Niño (La Niña) increases (decreases) the synoptic variability, but decreases (increases) it during the summer. The difference in winter El Niño/La Niña wavelet variances is about 20 % of the climatological value, meaning that ENSO can swing the synoptic flushing of the bay by 0.22 bay volumes per month. These changes in circulation associated with synoptic variability have the potential to impact mixing and transport within the bay.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this work is provided by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Greater Tampa Bay Marine Advisory Council-Physical Oceanographic Real Time System (GTBMAC-PORTS), Alliance for Coastal Technologies, Alfred P. Sloan Scholarship Foundation, and Florida Education Fund’s McKnight Doctoral Fellowship. The authors would like to thank the members of the Ocean Monitoring and Predication Laboratory at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science for their hard work and support for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ocean Monitoring and Prediction Laboratory, College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, 140 7th Ave South, St. Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA

    M. Wilson, S. D. Meyers & M. E. Luther

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  1. M. Wilson
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  2. S. D. Meyers
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  3. M. E. Luther
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Correspondence to M. Wilson.

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Wilson, M., Meyers, S.D. & Luther, M.E. Synoptic volumetric variations and flushing of the Tampa Bay estuary. Clim Dyn 42, 1587–1594 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1926-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1926-2

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