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Cape Fear River Estuary Modeling System Abstract XIA, MENG. Cape Fear River Estuary Modeling System. (Under the direction of Dr. LIAN XIE). The Cape Fear River Estuary (CFRE) region is one of the coastal regions facing frequent threats from tropical cyclones. It is also an important nursery for juvenile fish, crabs, shrimp, and other biological species. Thus, predicting the physical responses of the CFRE system to extreme weather events is important to the protection of life and property and ensuring the economical well beings of local residents. In this study, the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) is used to simulate the storm surge circulation in the CFRE and adjacent Long Bay and Onslow Bay. The Environmental Fluid Dynamic Code (EFDC), an estuarine and coastal ocean circulation model, is also used to simulate the salinity plume and tracer plume distribution and particle trajectory in the vicinity of the mouth of the Cape Fear River Estuary (CFRE). The effects of astronomical tide, river discharge and wind on the CFRE salinity plume and tracer plume, particle trajectory were investigated. The comparison among the plume structure, particle trajectory, and the passive tracer structure is discussed. To better simulate the plume structure in Cape Fear River Estuary (CFRE), we also test the sensitivity of the EFDC model to the choice of grid resolution, advection scheme, and external forcing. Cape Fear River Estuary Modeling System By Meng Xia A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Raleigh, NC Dec, 2006 Approved by: Dr. Leonard J. Pietrafesa Dr. John M. Morrison Dr. Daniel L. Kamykowski Dr. Lian Xie (Chair Advisory Committee) DEDICATION Special thanks to my wife and my parents. Without their love, encouragement and support, I couldn’t have completed this dissertation and faced this challenge. ii BIOGRAPHY Meng Xia was born in Shandong province, People’s Republic of China. He attended Ocean University of Qingdao at Qingdao, China, receiving Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Oceanography. He attended First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration and got his Master of Science degree in Physical Oceanography. He attended at the Department of Marine, Earth and Atmosphere sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC and pursued the Ph.D degree. iii Acknowledgements I wish to thank Dr. Lian Xie, the chair of the advisory committee, for his guidance, support and encouragement on this research. I appreciate that Dr. Xie provides me a very flexible research environment that is suitable for my research interests and strength. I always have freedom to explore some new ideas with available resources. I also benefit a lot from his methodology in ocean numerical modeling, his many thoughtful ideas that keep my research topic in step with current active research in this area. I want to express my appreciation to the advisory committee members, Dr. Leonard Pietrafesa, Dr. John Morrison and Dr. Daniel Kamykowski for their support, thoughtful input and advice on this research. They are also very helpful in providing me with various resources for the study. Thanks to all the friends in the Coastal Fluid Dynamics Lab. iv Table of Contents List of Tables ····················································································································vii List of Figures ···················································································································vii Chapter 1. Introduction··································································································· ···1 Chapter 2. Cape Fear River Estuary Storm surge Modeling··············································6 1. Introduction················································································································7 2. Model configuration of the Cape Fear River Estuary System ································9 3.Winds and experimental settings···········································································11 4. Results ·····················································································································13 5.Model Verification····································································································18 6.Discussion and Conclusions·····················································································18 References····················································································································22 The list of the table captions························································································25 The list of the figure captions······················································································25 Tables ·························································································································27 Figures ························································································································30 Chapter 3. Cape Fear River Estuary Plume Modeling······················································44 1. Introduction·············································································································45 2. Model description and configuration·····································································47 3. The plume case studies of March 22, 2005····························································51 4. Sensitivity Experiments·························································································52 5. Summary and conclusions ····················································································60 References ··················································································································63 The list of the figure captions······················································································69 Figures·························································································································71 Chapter 4. Modeling Cape Fear River Estuary Plumes: A Sensitivity Study to Model Settings ······························································································································85 1. Introduction·············································································································86 2. Model description··································································································88 v 3. Model Settings·······································································································88 4. Results ···················································································································89 5. Discussion and conclusions ··················································································94 References····················································································································95 The list of the figure captions······················································································99 Figures·······················································································································100 Chapter 5. A Numerical Study of Passive Tracer and Particle Trajectories in the Cape Fear River Estuary ·········································································································108 1. Introduction···········································································································109 2. Model description and configuration···································································110 3. Model Settings·····································································································111 4. Result···················································································································111 5. The comparison of the results to plume modeling··············································116 6. Summary and conclusions···················································································119 References··················································································································121 The list of the figure captions ··················································································123 Figures························································································································125 Chapter 6. Final Remarks·······························································································153 vi List of tables: Table 1. Dates and corresponding intensities of the Hurricanes········································27 Table 2. The time, location and pressure of hurricane Fran (1996) ·································27 Table 3. The time, location and pressure of Hurricane Bertha (1996) ·····························28 Table 4. The time, location and pressure of Hurricane Floyd (1999) ·······························29 Table 5. The time, location and pressure of Hurricane Charley (2004) ···························29 List of figures: Chapter2: Figure 1. The location of Cape Fear River Estuary and adjacent coastal area··················30 Figure 2. The land relief and bathymetry of the Cape Fear Estuary System····················31 Figure 3.
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