Lagrangian transport in a microtidal coastal area: the Bay of Palma, island of Mallorca, Spain

TL;DR

This study analyzes Lagrangian transport in the Bay of Palma using high-resolution numerical modeling, revealing how wind regimes influence flow structures, particle escape rates, and transport properties in a microtidal coastal area.

Contribution

It applies Lagrangian descriptors like FSLEs and RT maps to characterize flow regimes and transport dynamics in a small coastal bay under different wind conditions.

Findings

Wind regimes significantly affect surface flow structures.

Particle escape rate is 32% higher in October than in July.

LCSs effectively delineate regions with different transport behaviors.

Abstract

Coastal transport in the Bay of Palma, a small region in the island of Mallorca, Spain, is characterized in terms of Lagrangian descriptors. The data sets used for this study are the output for two months (one in autumn and one in summer) of a high resolution numerical model, ROMS, forced atmospherically and with a spatial resolution of 300 m. The two months were selected because its different wind regime, which is the main driver of the sea dynamics in this area. Finite-size Lyapunov Exponents (FSLEs) were used to locate semi-persistent Lagrangian coherent structures (LCS) and to understand the different flow regimes in the Bay. The different wind directions and regularity in the two months have a clear impact on the surface Bay dynamics, whereas only topographic features appear clearly in the bottom structures. The fluid interchange between the Bay and the open ocean was tudied by computing particle trajectories and Residence Times (RT) maps. The escape rate of particles out of the Bay is qualitatively different, with a 32$%$ more of escape rate of particles to the ocean in October than in July, owing to the different geometric characteristics of the flow. We show that LCSs separate regions with different transport properties by displaying spatial distributions of residence times on synoptic Lagrangian maps together with the location of the LCSs. Correlations between the time-dependent behavior of FSLE and RT are also investigated, showing a negative dependence when the stirring characterized by FSLE values moves particles in the direction of escape.