Modelling of the Ebro River Plume. Validation with fied observations

M MESTRES; JP SIERRA; SANCHEZ ARCILLA A; GONZALEZ J; T WOLF; A RODRIGUEZ; S OUILLON

SCIENTIA MARINA

INST CIENCIAS MAR BARCELONA

Lugar: Barcelona; Año: 2003 vol. 67 p. 379 - 391

0214-8358

The spreading of the plume induced by the freswater discgarge from the Ebro River into northwestern Mediterranean coastal waters was modelled using two numerical codes. The coastal current field was obtained with a finite difference hydrodinamic model based on a steady-state version of the shallow-water equations, whereas the freshwater dispersion was calculated using a Lagrangian code that solves the 3D convection-diffusion equation and reproduces turbulent diffusion using a "random wak" algorithm. The agreement obtained between numerical results, satellite observationes and field measurements allows an analysis of the more relevant physical mechanisms and the corresponding "tuning" of the two models. The results show that local hydrodynamics near the river mouth, and consequently the spreading of the river plume are highly dependent on the driving river discharge and wind field characteristics.