The Impact of Wind Forcing on the Thermal Wind Shear of A River Plume

A 38-day long time series obtained using a combination of moored Wirewalkers equipped with conductivity-temperature-depth profilers and bottom-mounted and subsurface acoustic Doppler current profilers provided detailed high-resolution observations that resolved near-surface velocity and vertical and cross-shelf density gradients of the Chesapeake Bay plume far field. This unprecedented data set allowed for a detailed investigation of the impact of wind forcing on the thermal wind shear of a river plume. Our results showed that thermal wind balance was a valid approximation for the cross-shelf momentum balance over the entire water column during weak winds (|tau yw|< 0.075 Pa), and it was also valid within the interior during moderate downwelling (-0.125更多