Last week, we introduced the idea that coastal trapped waves, not surface tides, drive the dominant tidal frequency currents in San Diego's inner shelf waters. But how exactly did we prove something like that?
My only introduction to beach physics was from talks at the 2010 rip current symposium in Miami. As a retired terrestrial botanist/bureaucrat (US Fish and Wildlife Service), Eurelian and Lagrangian mechanics were not in my head (nor for more legitimate participants: I got interested in beach lifeguarding thanks to being there). The complexities of beach currents were evident, along with the difficulties of studying them. As an ignorant outsider, the Parnell dataset looks like a marvel of technology, along with that hard work and, apparently, reliable funding.
Here on the Florida Atlantic coast, longshore currents are invariably wind driven, and pretty prevalent, normally gentle. National Weather Service has become prone to advise on them along with rip currents. So at western Newport Beach on June 1, the breeze was from the west but the longshore from the east, gently wanting you to visit Huntington. It made for an energy-conserving swim with lifeguard consent out through the persistent rip that he'd been gently moving people away from all day, exiting, and heading back near the next tower.
My only introduction to beach physics was from talks at the 2010 rip current symposium in Miami. As a retired terrestrial botanist/bureaucrat (US Fish and Wildlife Service), Eurelian and Lagrangian mechanics were not in my head (nor for more legitimate participants: I got interested in beach lifeguarding thanks to being there). The complexities of beach currents were evident, along with the difficulties of studying them. As an ignorant outsider, the Parnell dataset looks like a marvel of technology, along with that hard work and, apparently, reliable funding.
Here on the Florida Atlantic coast, longshore currents are invariably wind driven, and pretty prevalent, normally gentle. National Weather Service has become prone to advise on them along with rip currents. So at western Newport Beach on June 1, the breeze was from the west but the longshore from the east, gently wanting you to visit Huntington. It made for an energy-conserving swim with lifeguard consent out through the persistent rip that he'd been gently moving people away from all day, exiting, and heading back near the next tower.