Abstract:

Underway current velocity profiles were collected during the period from December 9 to 10, 2013, to capture a 24-hour diurnal tidal cycle along two transects crossing Destin Inlet. A Teledyne RD Instruments 1200 kHz acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) was mounted pointing downward on a 1.4 m-long catamaran. The catamaran was towed from an 8 m boat at ~1.5 m/s. Navigation was carried out with a Garmin GPS. Underway velocity profiles were recorded every 0.56 s around a trapezoidal trajectory in Destin Inlet, Florida. A total of 46 circuit repetitions were completed during a 24.5 h span. Raw velocity profiles were initially averaged in ensembles of 15 profiles, or at intervals of 8.4 s, which yielded a spatial resolution of around 12.5 m. The vertical bin size of each velocity measurement was 0.5 m. Fixed hydrographic profiles were collected at the end of each cross-inlet transect with a SeaBird 19-Plus CTD, sampling at a frequency of 4 Hz. A total of 44 CTD profiles were obtained at each of the two stations. These data were collected as part of the Surfzone Coastal Oil Pathway Experiment (SCOPE), focused on measuring the inner-shelf and surf-zone processes responsible for oil transport. They constitute part of the first investigation into the intratidal and residual flow structures across Destin Inlet. This dataset was created by the Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment (CARTHE). This research was made possible by a grant from BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.

Suggested Citation:

Valle-Levinson, Arnoldo. 2016. Surfzone Coastal Oil Pathway Experiment (SCOPE) ADCP and CTD measurements in Destin Inlet (Florida), December 2013. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/N7W093X7

Publications:

Valle-Levinson, A., Huguenard, K., Ross, L., Branyon, J., MacMahan, J., & Reniers, A. (2015). Tidal and nontidal exchange at a subtropical inlet: Destin Inlet, Northwest Florida. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 155, 137–147. doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2015.01.020

Purpose:

A tidal-cycle study at Destin Inlet, Northwest Florida, investigated intratidal and residual flow structures for the first time across the inlet. Underway current velocity profiles were combined with hydrographic station profiles at neap tides to document the appearance of tidal fronts, the distribution of tidal currents across two cross-sections, and the residual, or non-tidal, flow structure at the same cross-sections.

Data Parameters and Units:

Velocity (cm/s), Acoustic Intensity (db), Surface water temperature (degC), Latitude (decimal degrees); Longitude (decimal degrees), Water column depth (m); elapsed distance (m); elapsed time (s); Time (Year Day and fraction thereof), Depth (m), Temperature (deg), Conductivity (uS/cm), Salinity (g/kg), Sigma-t (kg/m3)

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