Boussinesq modeling of HB06 tracer releases Part 2: Tracer plumes

Tracer plumes simulated with a Boussinesq surfzone model (funwaveC) are compared with 5 plumes observed during the HB06 experiment (Huntington Beach, Fall 2006). Surfzone tracer plumes were formed by continuously releasing dye tracer into the wave-driven alongshore current. Bulk cross-shore eddy diffusivities, O(1 m2 s-1), were estimated from the observed plumes and agreed best with a mixing-length scaling based on large 2D eddies [Clark et al., JGR, in press 2010]. The mechanisms for surfzone cross-shore tracer dispersion are not well known, and are explored here with the time-dependent, wave and horizontal eddy resolving, funwaveC model. The funwaveC model is run with observed bathymetry, and initialized in 4m depth with the observed obliquely incident and directionally spread waves. Modeled and observed waves and currents are similar, and discussed in Part 1. Model tracer is dispersed by the surfzone horizontal eddy field, a breaking wave eddy diffusivity, and a small O(0.01 m2 s-1) background diffusivity. Modeled and observed mean plume structures agree, but can be degraded by a mismatch between observed and modeled alongshore currents, especially near the tracer source. Bulk tracer eddy diffusivities agree with HB06 observations, and the long narrow plume assumption (used for diffusion analysis) is discussed with modeled tracer fluxes. The model suggests that cross-shore mixing at time scales of many wave periods is dominated by horizontal eddies, not by the breaking eddy diffusivity.