Lagrangian analysis of mixing and transport of water masses in the marine bays

Abstract

The Lagrangian approach to studying the mixing and transport of a passive admixture in marine bays and gulfs based on the methods of a theory of dynamic systems is developed. This approach is employed to investigate the lateral mixing and transport of waters in the Peter the Great Bay, Japan Sea, using a velocity field of the predictive numerical hydrodynamic circulation model of a synoptic scale. It is shown that the Lagrangian characteristics, such as the maximum accumulated Lyapunov exponent, the time of particle stay in the bay, particle relative displacements, and the number of cyclonic and anticyclonic rotations, allow us to describe the movement of water masses, the character of mixing, and chaos in the Bay. In integrating the advection equations forward and backward in time, maps showing a number of particle arrivals to different regions of the Bay make it possible to establish corridors through which particles leave and enter the Bay.