A study is presented to examine the one-horizontal dimension effect of a shallow shelf obstacle on nonlinear long wave runup. Due to the large horizontal-vertical aspect ratio of this problem, it is not well suited for experimental analysis, and therefore this study is purely numerical. Simulations are performed for various incident wave conditions, obstacle height and widths, and final beach s...

Isentropic mixing is an important process for the distribution of chemical constituents in the mid-to-high latitudes. A new framework is introduced to quantify both symmetric and asymmetric isentropic mixing in a modified Lagrangian coordinate. The framework is applied to quantify the mixing associated with the two types of Rossby wave breaking (i.e. cyclonic and anticyclonic) in two sets of id...

Numerical simulations of nonrotating flow with uniform basic wind and stability past long three-dimensional (3D) ridges are compared to the corresponding two-dimensional (2D) limit to reveal the importance of 3D effects. For mountain heights smaller than the threshold for breaking waves, the low-level flow over the interior of the ridge is well described by 2D theory when the horizontal aspect ...

Isentropic transport and mixing are important processes for the distribution of chemical constituents in the mid-to-high latitudes. A new framework is introduced to quantify both isentropic transport and isentropic mixing in a modified Lagrangian coordinate. The framework is applied to quantify the transport and mixing associated with the two types of Rossby wave breaking (i.e. cyclonic and ant...

This paper proposes the hypothesis that the low-frequency variability of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) arises as a result of variations in the occurrence of upper-level Rossby wave–breaking events over the North Atlantic. These events lead to synoptic situations similar to midlatitude blocking that are referred to as high-latitude blocking episodes. A positive NAO is envisaged as being a...

A surf zone model is developed and tested based on the Oðl4Þ Boussinesq–Green–Naghdi system of Zhang et al. (2013). Because the model is fundamentally rotational, it uses fewer ad hoc assumptions than are found in many Boussinesq breaking wave systems. Eddy viscosity is used to describe both breaking dissipation and bottom friction, with breaking viscosities derived from the turbulent kinetic e...

A method for obtaining two dimensional fields of wave breaking energy dissipation in the surfzone is presented. The method relies on acquiring geometrical parameters of the wave roller from remote sensing data. These parameters are then coupled with a dissipation model to obtain time averaged two dimensional maps, but also the wave breaking energy dissipation on a wave-by-wave basis. Comparison...

This article investigates the synoptic characteristics of individual North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) events by examining the daily evolution of the potential temperature field on the nominal tropopause (the 2-PVU surface). This quantity is obtained from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP–NCAR) reanalysis dataset for the winter seaso...

Wave breaking on the surface of the ocean results in significant transfer of mass, momentum, heat and energy across the air-sea interface. However, understanding the physics of these phenomena remains a challenge, as both the measurement and simulation of the relevant processes are highly complex. Recent numerical studies have begun to investigate the air-water coupling during the breaking proc...