A Numerical Investigation of Tidal Current Circulation in the Gulf of Maine.

The hydrodynamical-numerical model of Walter Hansen is used to compute tidal heights and tidal currents in the Gulf of Maine. The model uses two adjacent open boundaries at which the tides are prescribed at each time step, using four tidal constituents. The grid size is six nautical miles and the time step is thirty-one seconds. Seven data runs are reported one uses the tides and no wind and the remaining six use uniform wind fields in consort with the tides. A modified method of handling the topographic data is used. The pertinent results of the study are 1 the use of Hansens Model with adjacent open boundaries produces broad subjective agreement with observed data, 2 the modified method of handling topographic input data is workable, 3 wind direction and velocity produce slight variations in tidal height, 4 wind direction and velocity modify the direction of the tidal currents considerably and produce some significant increases in tidal current speed, and 5 the modifying influences of wind fields on tidal heights, tidal current velocities, and tidal current directions are more noticeable in shallow water areas than in regions of deep water. Author