Accession Number:

ADA067255

Title:

Low-Frequency Sea-Level and Current Fluctuations Along the Coast of Northwest Italy.

Descriptive Note:

Memorandum rept.,

Corporate Author:

SACLANT ASW RESEARCH CENTRE LA SPEZIA (ITALY)

Personal Author(s):

• Elliott,Alan J.

Report Date:

1978-11-15

Pagination or Media Count:

27.0

Abstract:

An analysis is made of two-month long records of current, sea level, and wind stress, collected during April and May 1977 at locations in the shallow waters off the coast of northwest Italy. The mean current was directed along the coast towards the northwest and had a strength of 5.0 to 6.0 cms this flow continued past the island of Elba, progressing from the Tyrrhenian Sea into the Ligurian Sea. Sea-level fluctuations were coherent along the Ligurian coast of Italy and were due to a wind-induced set-up caused by the semi-enclosed nature of the basin only a fraction of the sea level disturbances in the Tyrrhenian Sea propagated into the Ligurian basin. There was no coherence between the near-shore current and the sea level, suggesting that shelf waves may play only a minor role in the dynamics of the region. The alongshore currents were coherent with each other and with the wind at a time scale of about five days. This agrees with the period of cyclone activity in the area, and suggests that the shelf waters responded coherently when the wind field was well organized during the formation of a depression. In consequence, an adequate hydrodynamic model of the region would need to couple both the atmospheric and the coastal response. Author

Descriptors:

• *OCEAN CURRENTS
• SHEAR PROPERTIES
• STRESSES
• COASTAL REGIONS
• MASS FLOW
• WIND VELOCITY
• ITALY
• LIGURIAN SEA
• TYRRHENIAN SEA

Subject Categories:

• Physical and Dynamic Oceanography

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE