Based on the 2019 Summer School "Estuarine and Coastal Fluid Dynamics" at Friday Harbor Laboratories.
Currently these are just scanned handwritten lectures. They were given as blackboard lectures: writing out enough to fill the available boards, waiting for everyone to stop copying, talking through the material, and then moving on. The course was 9 credits (like three normal courses) in just 5 weeks, but in the early weeks we had 3.5 hours of lecture 5 days per week. In later weeks this decreased to leave time for the student projects. We also had visitors in each of weeks 2-5: Steve Lentz, Susan Allen, Bob Chant, and Sarah Giddings. They typically gave one blackboard lecture and one research-style PPT lecture. Their lectures are not included here.
We did not have formal problem sets, but there are a number of places throughout the lectures where we asked students to work out a problem in class and present their results (often denoted by a star-in-a-circle in the lectures).
Eventually these would benefit from being written up in clear textbook-style. The ones with "RG" in the title of the PDF are from MacCready's notes during Geyer's lectures and may be a little rough as a result.
We would like to thank all the FHL students from 2003 onwards who put up with us as we developed this material.
1.1 Intro to Estuaries - Scales and Equations. This lecture is intended to be a review of material that the students are expected to have already seen in intro fluids and GFD classes.
1.2 Frictional Shallow Water Equations. The Shallow Water (SW) equations are a great way to introduce physics relevant to estuaries, and they are the foundation for understanding tides.
A website with material relevant to the physics of tides and how they appear in the Pacific horthwest is here.
1.3 The Turbulent Log Layer and the Quadratic Drag Coefficient. Jumping off from the mention of bottom drag in the SW equations, we look at the fundamental boundary layer structure that causes it.
1.4 Boundary Layer Turbulence and Spectra. Continuing with turbulence, we discuss the energy cascade.
1.5 SW Waves in a Channel. Here we turn back to the SW equations, combining them into a wave equation, including friction.
1.6 Background on Using Complex Notation for SW Waves. These are some mathematical notes that help make working with frictional SW waves easier. This is about as complicated as the math gets in this class.
1.7 SW Waves with Friction and Velocity. Continuing with SW waves, we explore the velocity field associated with the surface height field.
1.8 The Quarter-Wave Oscillator is a specific solution to the SW wave problem in a long bay with strong reflection. It is a good description of tides in the Salish Sea.
1.9 The Trumpet-Shaped Estuary is another classic analytical solution to the frictional SW wave equations. It is a good description of tides in shallower coastal plain estuaries.
1.10 Deep-Water Waves. Taking a break from SW waves, we introduce the non-hydrostatic physics of so-called "deep-water" waves. Wind waves and swell are good examples of this.
2.1 Two-Layer Stratification and Internal Waves. This introduces stratification and the "reduced gravity" for 2-layer SW flow, and introduces internal waves.
2.2 Oscillatory Boundary Layers. Here we introduce another aspect of flow that is relevant to tides. This is unstratified but includes the vertical structure using the eddy viscosity.
2.3 Form Drag. Here we start to consider the effects of irregular bottom topography.
2.4 The Bernoulli Function. This is a fundamental concept that all students should memorize. It is linked here to the form drag problem but also relates to energy and hydraulics.
2.5 Mechanical Energy: KE and APE. Fundamental concepts of energy in fluids.
2.6 Stratified Turbulence. This makes use of the energy concepts to consider the stability of stratified shear flow. It touches on important concepts in stratified turbulence like the Richardson Number, Ozmidov Number, Thorpe Scale, dissipation, and mixing efficiency. This could be a whole course in itself; our intention here is just that students have seen these concepts and know how they fit together.
3.1 Estuarine Circulation. Here we finally get to estuaries, starting with the classic solution for tidally averaged circulation. This is a good place for the students to make sure they are clear on the difference between a stress and a stress divergence.
3.2 Estuarine Salinity Structure. Continuing with classic tidally-averaged dynamics, now considering the evolution of the stratification.
3.3 Strongly Stratified Estuaries. Observed dynamics for the part of estuarine parameter space with strong river flow and weak tides.
3.4 One-Layer Hydraulics. Some material related to the strongly stratified case, looking at hydraulics. This is a complicated subject so we stick to one layer.
4.1 The Kundsen Relations. Now that we know a bit about the detailed physics of estuaries, we consider integrated balances of volume and salt, leading to the Knudsen Relations, a cornestrone of estuarine physics.
4.2 Estuarine Flux Decomposition. Here we present some details about how along-channel fluxes are calculated.
4.3 Estuarine Variability. Here we consider how a simple estuary, the "Chatwin Solution," varies under changes in river flow and tidal mixing.
4.4 Salinity Variance and Mixing. This introduces an important concept used in many recent estuarine studies.
4.5 Secondary Flow. Here we discuss several important mechanisms for generating cross-channel flow, and how these may influence along-channel circulation.
5.1 Surface Wave Patterns, The Simpson Number. Two short notes. The first is about how wind waves are modified by surface convergence, leading to commmonly observed patterns. The second introduces the Simpson Number, an important dimensionless number for estuaries.
5.2 More Energy Concepts, including "Simpson's Phi" and the Available Potential Energy equation.