Abstract:

The Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM) and its SWAVE and SED modules were applied over the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf that includes the Barataria Bay to simulate three-dimensional tidal and circulation patterns driven by the Mississippi/Atchafalaya Rivers and river diversion, tides, winds, and wind waves, as well as suspended sand/silt/clay concentrations and geomorphology evolution. The numerical model mesh covers a much larger computational domain which extends longitudinally from Mobile Bay, Alabama to the west of Galveston Bay, Texas and offshore to ~ 300 – 1000 m isobaths over the Alabama-Mississippi-Louisiana-Texas continental shelf and slope. Since the wave-current-sediment fully coupled computation is time-consuming and the output file is huge (on the order of terabytes), two sets of modeling data are submitted. The first one is a wave-current-sediment fully coupled simulation result from April 1 to June 30, 2010. The NetCDF (Network Common Data Form) file is ~ 1 TB. The second dataset is FVCOM simulated current and salinity (without coupling to the wave and sediment modules) for the same geographic area from July 1 to December 20, 2010. The output file is about 230 GB.

Suggested Citation:

Huang, Haosheng. 2020. FVCOM-simulated currents, salinity and suspended sediment concentrations for Barataria Bay and adjacent Louisiana-Texas continental shelf from 2010-04-01 to 2010-12-20. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/n7-w5px-fd37

Purpose:

Oceanic currents and wind wave data are important to predict bottom sediment (re)suspension, deposition, and geomorphological change, especially for shallow coastal estuaries and bays. Wave-current interaction adds wave contribution to ocean current which can be subsequently used to predict the distribution and movement of spilled oil, suspended sediment, as well as ecologically and biologically important variables (such as nutrients, phytoplankton, etc.), in the coastal environment. FVCOM was applied over the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf that includes Barataria Bay to simulate wind-wave field, three-dimensional circulation patterns, as well as suspended sand/silt/clay concentrations and geomorphology evolution.

Data Parameters and Units:

Y nodal y-coordinate (UTM16 projection) (meters) Siglay ocean sigma coordinate (none) H bathymetry (meters) Time time (seconds) Zeta sea surface elevation (upward positive) (meters) U Eastward ocean velocity (m/s) V Northward ocean velocity (m/s) Ww vertical water velocity (m/s) Salinity seawater salinity (PSU) Hs significant wave height (meters) Tpeak Relative peak period (seconds) Wdir mean wave direction (degree) Tauc bed stress magnitude from currents (m2/s2) Taub total bed stress magnitude (m2/s2) Bed_sand Suspended sediment concentration of Bed_sand (g/l) Bed_mud Suspended sediment concentration of Bed_mud (g/l) Sed_channel Suspended sediment concentration of Sed_channel (g/l) AW_mud Suspended sediment concentration of AW_mud (g/l) M_sand Suspended sediment concentration of M_sand (g/l) M_silt Suspended sediment concentration of M_silt (g/l) M_clay Suspended sediment concentration of M_clay (g/l) D_sand Suspended sediment concentration of D_sand (g/l) D_silt Suspended sediment concentration of D_silt (g/l) D_clay Suspended sediment concentration of D_clay (g/l) Sed_channel_bedfrac Fraction of Sed_channel in surface bed layer (none) Bed_sand_bedfrac Fraction of Bed_sand in surface bed layer (none) Bed_mud_bedfrac Fraction of Bed_mud in surface bed layer (none) AW_mud_bedfrac Fraction of AW_mud in surface bed layer (none) M_sand_bedfrac Fraction of M_sand in surface bed layer (none) M_silt_bedfrac Fraction of M_silt in surface bed layer (none) M_clay_bedfrac Fraction of M_clay in surface bed layer (none) D_sand_bedfrac Fraction of D_sand in surface bed layer (none) D_silt_bedfrac Fraction of D_silt in surface bed layer (none) D_clay_bedfrac Fraction of D_clay in surface bed layer (none) Bed_thick Bed thickness (meters) Bed_age Bed age (days) Bed_por Bed porosity (none) Bot_sd50 Bottom sediment median diameter (meters) Bot_dens Bottom sediment density (kg/m3) Bot_wset Bottom sediment setting velocity (m/s) Bot_tauc (Current-induced bottom shear stress (N/m2 Bot_dthck Bottom sediment layer net change (meters) Bot_tmass Bottom sediment layer total mass (kg) Morph Bottom morphology (meters) Wav_excur Wave-particle bottom orbital excursion (meters) Wave_bbl Wave bottom boundary layer thickness Where D represents Davis Pond Diversion, AW Atchafalaya River, M Mississippi River. (meters)

Methods:

The different FVCOM models that were ran used the following: 1. FVCOM hydrodynamic model: 1.1) Wind forcing of 3-hourly gridded wind dataset from NOAA North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) products (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/model-data/model-datasets/north-american-regional-reanalysis-narr 1.2) Open boundary water level forcing from NOAA National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) (https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/) 1.3) River discharges from USGS National Water Information System (https://maps.waterdata.usgs.gov/mapper/index.html 2. For FVCOM-SWAVE model: 2.1) Wind forcing is the same as in 1.1) 2.2) Open boundary significant wave height, peak wave period, and mean wave direction datasets are from 10 arc minute North-East Atlantic WAVEWATCH III (WWIII) products (https://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/ 3 For FVCOM-SED model: 3.1) Open boundary suspended sediment concentration is always zero. 3.2) Sediment discharge at the Mississippi River boundary is taken from Allison et al. (2012) that is based on the rating curve estimation at the Belle Chasse station (USGS station 07374525). The dataset is in the Appendix of Allison et al. (2012). 3.3) Sediment discharge at the Atchafalaya River boundary is also taken from Allison et al. (2012) that is collected for USGS station 07381495 at Melville, Louisiana.

Provenance and Historical References:

Allison, M.A., Demas, C.R., Ebersole, B.A., Kleiss, B.A., Little, C.D., Meselhe, E.A., Powell, N.J., Pratt, T.C., and Vosburg, B.M. (2012). A water and sediment budget for the lower Mississippi–Atchafalaya River in flood years 2008–2010: Implications for sediment discharge to the oceans and coastal restoration in Louisiana. Journal of Hydrology, 432-433, 84–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.02.020

Individual Files: