Bottom Stress of Wind-Driven Currents Over an Inner Shelf Determined from Depth-Integrated Storm Surge Model

Abstract

Bottom stress from wind-driven current was explicitly calculated using the SLOSH (Sea, Lake, and Overland Surges from Hurricanes) model in which the bottom stress is not collinear with the direction of depth-averaged flow. The asymptotic behavior of wind-flow relationships in a shallow ocean with a horizontally infinite extent shows that the SLOSH model estimates reasonably the magnitude and the direction of the bottom stress over a range of the shallow water condition. For the broad and shallow inner shelf of the Middle Atlantic Bight (MAE), the SLOSH model for steady flow for a semi-infinite ocean resulted in reasonable estimation of bottom flow under the high wind conditions of typical extratropical origin.