@article{eebf90b79e2b4b718531dded14257e74,
title = "Water age in the Columbia River estuary",
abstract = "The concept of water age is applied to the Columbia River estuary to investigate water renewing time scales. Water age tracers were implemented in a three-dimensional circulation model. The model was run for a nine month period in 2012, covering both high and low flow conditions. In the lower estuary renewing water age ranges from roughly 20 h during high flow season (typically April–June) to 70 h during lowest river discharge (typically September–October). The age of riverine water is strongly dependent on river discharge. Dense oceanic waters, in contrast, are always relatively young in the estuary (roughly 20 h) although their age does vary with tidal range and river discharge. Compared to the main channels, water age tends to be larger in the lateral bays throughout the simulation period; this is especially true under low flow and neap tides conditions when water age can exceed 120 h in the bays. During low flow conditions a strong lateral circulation pattern emerges and leads to higher water age near Grays Bay. The maximal water age in the main channels is associated with mixed water mass (around 6–12 psu) located in front and above the salt wedge. The circulation model results are used to derive simple regression models that can be used to predict renewing water time scales without the need of a circulation model.",
keywords = "Circulation model, Columbia river estuary, Residence time, Water age, Water renewal",
author = "Tuomas K{\"a}rn{\"a} and Baptista, {Ant{\'o}nio M.}",
note = "Funding Information: The National Science Foundation partially supported this research through cooperative agreement OCE-0424602 . The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NA11NOS0120036 and AB-133F-12-SE-2046 ), Bonneville Power Administration ( 00062251 ) and Corps of Engineers ( W9127N-12-2-007 and G13PX01212 ) provided partial motivation and additional support. This work used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), which is supported by National Science Foundation grant number ACI-1053575 . The authors acknowledge the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin for providing HPC resources that have contributed to the research results reported within this paper. Funding Information: The National Science Foundation partially supported this research through cooperative agreement OCE-0424602. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NA11NOS0120036 and AB-133F-12-SE-2046), Bonneville Power Administration (00062251) and Corps of Engineers (W9127N-12-2-007 and G13PX01212) provided partial motivation and additional support. This work used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), which is supported by National Science Foundation grant number ACI-1053575. The authors acknowledge the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin for providing HPC resources that have contributed to the research results reported within this paper. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016 The Authors",
year = "2016",
month = dec,
day = "20",
doi = "10.1016/j.ecss.2016.09.001",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "183",
pages = "249--259",
journal = "Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science",
issn = "0272-7714",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
}