Cheryl Ann Blain

United States Naval Research Laboratory | NRL · Oceanography Division

Multiple river-dominated estuaries line the northern Gulf coast and introduce substantial density variations. Their plumes have been shown to be highly sensitive to wind and tide effects, but in studies with limited observations and idealized wind forcing. This study explores these effects with a dynamic model that can represent the full behavior f...

The aim of this study is to construct a modeling system that will assist flood risk management strategies in a coastal plain braided river system. The model configuration consists of a hydrodynamic model (ADCIRC) of the river basin that receives tidal forcing at the open boundary and river discharge forcing at upstream flux boundary. An unstructure...

The impact of resolution on wind predictions within regions of complex coastal geometry is evaluated using a quadruple nest of COAMPS® (27 km to 1 km) to find an optimal configuration of spatial and temporal resolution. Two regions, Turkish Straits System and Chesapeake Bay, are selected because of their diverse coastal environments, the availabili...

Nonbuoyant front formation at the confluence of Nanjemoy Creek and the main Potomac River (MD) channel is examined. Terra satellite ASTER imagery reveals a sediment color front emerging from Nanjemoy Creek when the Potomac is near maximum ebb. Nearly contemporaneous ASTER and Landsat ETM+ imagery are used to extract surface velocities, which sugges...

A computer-implemented method for creating an ordered set of boundary data by transforming data from remotely sensed imagery of shorelines is provided. A feature data set and an edge data set are transformed into a set of 3-point boundary segments having a specific head and tail point and the segments are ordered from tail to head in a clockwise or...

Mesh generation and editing tools are provided. The mesh generation and editing tools can be implemented using MATLAB® and are platform-independent, usable in any number of different operating systems and configurations. The mesh generation tool uses a graphical user interface to receive user inputs of boundary and bathymetry information and automa...

A fundamental challenge in river analysis and modeling is the lack of readily available and reliable information on river bank geometry. Traditional survey methods are expensive and time consuming and often difficult to execute in many river systems due to hazardous terrain or lack of access. However as high quality aerial and satellite imagery bec...

System and method for extraction and processing of river bank coordinates from imagery, generation of an unstructured mesh of the river using river bank positions and available or synthetic bathymetry, application of upstream and downstream boundary forcing data, contingencies for handling missing data, and configuration of multiple realizations of...

An experimental study of turbulence and vertical mixing was carried out in the lower east Pearl River (Mississippi and Louisiana, USA) during a high discharge period in February and March of 2010. Direct estimates were made of the time varying profile of turbulent Reynolds stresses (τ x /ρ = −u w) through the water column. From this both the vertic...

Catastrophic flooding associated with sea-level rise and change of hurricane patterns has put the northeastern coastal regions of the United States at a greater risk. In this paper, we predict coastal flooding at the east bank of Delaware Bay and analyze the resulting impact on residents and transportation infrastructure. The three-dimensional coas...

A methodology is developed to extract and process shoreline data, the interface between land and water, identified from imagery. Initially, image pixels containing water (water points) and pixel locations of the land/water interface (edge points) are extracted from an image using either a supervised, threshold approach or a newly developed, automat...

An initialized graphical user interface program can produce a plurality of parameter input fields in a graphical user interface. The plurality of parameter input fields can be logically grouped with similar parameter input fields in close approximation to each other in the graphical user interface. The graphical user interface program can then rece...

Process-oriented tests, such as those suggested by Haidvogel and Beckmann (1999), are often utilized in the validation of baroclinic processes in shallow water models. In a previous analysis, the so-called “lock-exchange” or “dam break” problem on a flat slope, wherein a vertical barrier that separates water of different densities is removed at tim...

The wind is very often either the primary driving force or an important modifier to the underlying circulation in coastal ocean waters. Commonly, operationally available wind products are coarse in spatial and/or temporal resolution relative to the geometric and dynamical scales of the coastal zone. These inadequacies not only produce error in the...

The objective of the Coastal and Inland Flooding Observation and Warning (CI-FLOW) project is to prototype new hydrometeorologic techniques to address a critical NOAA service gap: routine total water level predictions for tidally influenced watersheds. Since February 2000, the project has focused on developing a coupled modeling system to accuratel...

A method has been developed which automatically extracts river and river bank locations from arbitrarily sourced high resolution (~lm) visual spectrum imagery without recourse to multi-spectral or even color information. This method relies on quantifying the difference in image texture between the relatively smooth surface of the river water and th...

To meet the challenge of operating in river environments with denied access and to improve the riverine intelligence available to the warfighter, advanced high resolution river circulation models are combined with remote sensing feature extraction algorithms to produce a predictive capability for currents and water levels in rivers where a priori k...

A limited domain, coastal ocean forecast system consisting of an unstructured grid model, a meteorological model, a regional ocean model, and a global tidal database is designed to be globally relocatable. For such a system to be viable, the predictability of coastal currents must be well understood with error sources clearly identified. To this en...

ADCIRC (Advanced CIRCulation) is a 2D/3D hydrodynamic model based on the St. Venant equations subject to the standard Boussinesq approximation; applications over its 20-year history range from predicting the effects of coastal dredging to developing a tidal database to estimating the extent of hurricane storm surge inundation. In order to extend th...

To accurately capture the fluid dynamics present in shallow straits and near-coastal zones, development efforts have centered around enhancing the 3D baroclinic capabilities of the coastal model, ADCIRC. The scale of resolution necessary to resolve shallow straits and coastal zones is not practical with structured global/regional models, such as HY...

Two narrow, shallow straits, i.e. the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, form a physical connection between the Marmara Sea and its adjacent water bodies, the Aegean Sea to the southwest and the Black Sea to the northeast. This collection of seas and straits is known as the Turkish Strait System (TSS). Saline, dense water from the Aegean flows in a dee...

The Validation Test Report for the Advanced CIRCulation Model, ADCIRC, v45.11 addresses the prediction of barotropic 2D and 3D currents, water levels and inundation. Validation efforts address 1) the wetting and drying capability, 2) the prediction of surge, inundation and surge-induced currents, 3) the prediction of two- and three-dimensional curr...

The goal is to fulfill the US Navy's need for a relocatable, robust operational coastal forecast system by developing and transitioning a high-resolution, coastal circulation model into the Naval Oceanographie Office's operational environment. The coastal circulation model undergoing transition is a three-dimensional, finite-element based hydrodyna...

A tool has been developed, the River Simulation Tool (RST), that allows the configuration of a two-dimensional hydrodynamic river model based on imagery-extracted information that defines model geometry and water depth, as available. The RST contains automated shoreline processing and mesh generation capabilities for unstructured grids and accommod...

The lower Pearl River in Mississippi and Louisiana flows through extensive areas of intertidal marshes and flood-plains and is subject to frequent floods due to upstream flows, local runoff and tidal and storm forcing. In order to improve flow and flood prediction capabilities, a hydrodynamic flow and inundation model for the lower Pearl River is b...

The ADvanced CIRCulation Model, ADCIRC, and the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model, HYCOM, are coupled in the Northern Aegean Sea. Over its 62 km, the Dardanelles Strait connects the Aegean Sea to the Marmara Sea. The Dardanelles outflow spreads to the Aegean Sea as a buoyant plume showing seasonal characteristics. The unstructured nature of the ADCIRC...

The goal is to fulfill the US Navy's need for a relocatable, robust operational coastal forecast system by developing and transitioning a high-resolution, coastal circulation model into the Naval Oceanographic Office's operational environment. The coastal circulation model undergoing transition is a three-dimensional, finite-element based hydrodyna...

What is the role of outflow properties, strait dynamics and atmospheric forcing in the development of the Dardanelles plume? How does the transport and fate of BSW waters vary in seasonal and inter-annual time scales, how is it modified by the complex topography and how does it impact the North Aegean general circulation? What is the role of BSW on...

Recent development efforts have added 3D baroclinic dynamics to the coastal model, ADCIRC, which has been successfully, validated using process-oriented tests on simplified domains and laboratory data. Implementation of a model based on unstructured grids, such as ADCIRC, remains attractive due to the flexibility in mapping intricate topography and...

The User's Manual for the Matlab-based MeshGUI Graphical User Interface (GUI) containing the software programs meshcreate.m and meshedit.m describes the software, including its functionality and usage. The meshcreate and meshedit tools provide a relatively automated and interactive means, respectively, for obtaining good quality finite element mesh...

Rivers pose one of the most challenging environments to quantify as they contain elements of both land and water. Their dynamical scales are small in size relative to traditional ocean processes, and are ever-changing in their position and character. To compound the problem, many riverine environments of interest to the U.S. Navy are inaccessible o...

The User's Manual for the Makef15 Graphical User Interface (GUI) software, makefort15gui.pl, contains descriptions of the software, including its functionality and usage. The Makef15 GUI is a window-based, platform-independent Perl script that can both create or modify the ADvanced CIRCulation (ADCIRC) Model Parameter and Periodic Boundary Forcing...

The User's Manual for the Makef22 software tool, makef22.pl, contains descriptions of the software, including its functionality and usage. The Makef22 software is a Perl-based program that creates an ADvanced CIRCulation (ADCIRC) Model Surface Wind and Pressure Forcing file (fort.22) using the NWS=2 option. The software was developed for ADCIRC ver...

Two methods for computing local mass flux for a continuous Galerkin finite element formulation of the Generalized Wave Continuity Equation (GWCE) are derived and a third method is discussed in light of the first two. The GWCE is shown to not conserve mass locally, while it can be shown to conserve a certain quantity locally. The two derived methods...

A coupled discontinuous–continuous Galerkin (DG–CG) shallow water model is compared to a continuous Galerkin generalized wave-continuity equation (GWCE) based model for the coastal ocean, whereby local mass imbalance typical of GWCE-based solutions is eliminated using the coupled DG–CG approach. Two mass imbalance indicators for the GWCE-based mode...

Predictive Capability for Coastal Circulation: High resolution (meters) currents and water levels in littoral environments that include bays, inter-tidal marshes and rivers. ADCIRC Model includes 3D dynamics, details of forcing from tides, wind, waves and rivers; shoreline inundation/recession; uses unstructured grids(based on finite elements) and...

A two-dimensional barotropic finite element model with the grid resolution varying between 0.2 and 2km and forced by eight principle constituents (Q1, O1, P1, K1, N2, M2, S2, and K2) was used to compute tidal elevations and currents in the Bab el Mandab Strait. Good agreement is achieved with the available observations for both diurnal and semidiur...

In 3D shallow water models, the baroclinic pressure gradient (BPG) an become unstable or physically unrealistic in areas of rapidly changing topography and/or density fields. By using a 2D finite element x-z model, whose formulatio uses the generalized wave continuity equation, we assess the impact on accuracy of three methods used to compute the B...

Cores collected from Mississippi Sound and the inner shelf of the northeast Gulf of Mexico have been examined using 210 Pb and 137 Cs geochronology, X-radiography, granulometry, and a multi-sensor core logger. The results indicate that widespread event layers were probably produced by an unnamed hurricane in 1947 and by Hurricane Camille in 1969. P...

The high fidelity simulation of littoral environments (HFSoLE) challenge project (C75) encompasses a suite of seven oceanographic models capable of exchanging information in a physically meaningful sense across the littoral environment. This project is leveraging and extending state-of-the-art atmospheric, oceanographic, estuarine, riverine, surfac...

Wave-induced rip currents on barred planar beaches are using ADCIRC-2DDI, a two-dimensional finite-element hydrodynamic model. Surface wave stress gradients, determined form REF/DIF1, a phase-resolving monochromatic wave model that simulates refraction, diffraction, and wave breaking, are used to force the ADCIRC model. The rip current circulation...

Two variations of a discontinuous Galerkin method are investigated for the primitive form of the time-dependent, 2-D, depth-averaged conservation of mass equation for shallow water. Linear approximating functions are employed, which are defined locally on each element, providing three degrees of freedom per element. In the first method, the degrees...

Alongshore currents and nearshore dynamics generated on plane and barred beaches are successfully simulated using a shallow water model, ADCIRC, whose traditional applications have been focused on shelf-scale processes. ADCIRC-2DDI is a two-dimensional, finite-element-based coastal circulation model. Wave fields obtained from REF/DIFI, a monochroma...

The present work focuses on results from the second phase of development of a forecast system for coastal circulation in the Mississippi Sound and surrounding embayments in the northeast Gulf of Mexico. The basis of the forecast system is the 3-D finite element model, ADCIRC, driven by tides, river inflow, and wind. Sensitivity of the forecast mode...

Because tidal inlets are important areas with respect to biodiversity, sediment transport, freshwater river outflow, and pollutant transport, a comprehensive understanding of their circulation patterns is necessary for their management. This study focuses on modeling the 2D, depth-averaged circulation of Bay St. Louis in the northeastern Gulf of Me...

In shelf regions with steep bathymetry in the presence of density gradients, the computation of the baroclinic pressure gradient term in 3D shallow water models may either become unstable or physically unrealistic. This manuscript examines four algorithms to compute the baroclinic pressure gradient term in finite element models. Two common systems...

This study focuses on modeling the 2D, depth-averaged circulation of an ideal inlet that is driven by waves and tides using a coupled hydrodynamic-wave model. The circulation of an ideal inlet, consisting of a shallow bay of constant depth connected by a relatively narrow inlet to a sloping coastal shelf region, is studied. Circulation within the i...

Cores collected from Mississippi Sound, in the Gulf of Mexico, were studied using 210Pbxs and 137Cs geochronology, X-radiography, granulometry, and a multi-sensor core logger. Our results indicate the presence of a widespread sandy event layer that we attribute to Hurricane Camille (1969). An initial thickness of more than 10 cm is estimated from t...

This report describes the implementation of the QUODDY finite-element circulation model on shared-memory multiprocessor computers using OpenMP. Because all code modifications were restricted to the main computational routines and no changes are required in the user interface and configuration files, the parallel code can be seamlessly integrated in...

The littorals of the World are areas of great strategic importance. Approximately 95% of the world's population lives within 600 miles of sea, 80% of all countries border the coast and 80% of the world's capitals lie within 300 nautical miles of shore. With the end of the cold war, DoD's focus has shifted from a land/sea battle scenario with a mono...

The model forecast system comprising the finite element-based hydrodynamic model ADCIRC-2DDI, the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS), and the Grenoble tidal database (FES95.2.1) is evaluated in the Western North Atlantic Ocean under an operational test (OPTEST) defined by the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO). Using...

In the application of adjoint methods, adjoint model equations are used to compute the directions in which unknown model parameters should be adjusted to achieve an optimal fit between modeled dynamics and observations. Many researchers have successfully applied an incremental adjoint modeling approach to infer open ocean boundary forcing that acco...

The consequences of multiple event bed deposition are being studied using radiometric estimates of bioturbation and accumulation from cores and a three-dimensional numerical sediment resuspension and transport model. The focus area is near Ship Island, Mississippi. Two historical hurricanes are being evaluated: an unnamed category 4 hurricane in 19...

The three-dimensional climatological circulation is computed for the Yellow and Bohai Seas in a series of six bimonthly realizations. The model (QUODDY, Lynch et al., Continental Shelf Res. 16(7) (1996) 875) is nonlinear, tide-resolving, and baroclinic with level 2.5 turbulence closure. Data inputs include seasonal hydrography, seasonal mean wind a...

The flow in the vicinity of an idealized tidal inlet is studied using the nonlinear finite-element model ADCIRC. The principal aim is to establish a database of results to identify, analyze, and explain the processes in and near tidal inlets of the Mississippi Sound region in the northeast Gulf of Mexico. Coastal waters in the northeast Gulf of Mex...

A better understanding of nearshore circulation is crucial to problems concerning coastal zone management such as sediment transport, pollutant transport, water quality, and ship navigation. The two main questions we wish to address in this study are: 1) Is it possible to apply a shelf-scale hydrodynamic model to nearshore environments and 2) How s...

Details of the barotropic hydrodynamic model, ADCIRC-2DDI, including formulation of the governing equations and their numerical solution are presented. Validation of ADCIRC-2DDI predicted tidal heights and currents in the North Sea/English channel is undertaken in the context of the Tidal Flow Forum as outlined by Werner and Lynch (1988). Sensitivi...

The focus of this paper is a systematic determination of the relationship between grid resolution and errors associated with computations of hurricane storm surge. A grid structure is sought that provides the spatial resolution necessary to capture pertinent storm surge physics and does not overdiscretize. A set of numerical experiments simulating...

This report investigates the use of large domains in modeling hurricane storm surge. The hydrodynamic model used in this study is the ADCJIRC-2DDI code, which is based on a two-dimensional, depth-integrated, finite element formulation. Hurricane wind stress and pressure forcing from Hurricane Kate are produced by the HURWIN code, a vertically avera...

Finite element models of the shallow-water equations using the wave continuity formulation do not generate the noise that plagued early modeling efforts based on a primitive formulation. Furthermore, simulations using the wave continuity formulation produce results consistent with both analytical solutions and field-measured values. However, in cer...

The influence of domain size on boundary condition specification and on computed storm surge response is investigated. Storm surge response along the Florida shelf in the Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricane Kate is examined over three domains using two different open ocean boundary forcing functions, a still water (or zero elevation) condition and an i...

This report describes the use of model ADCIRC-2DDI, a two- dimensional, depth-integrated, finite-element-based hydrodynamic circulation code. ADCIRC-2DDI solves the shallow-water equations in their full nonlinear form and can be forced with elevation boundary conditions, zero normal boundary fluxes, variable spatial and temporal free surface stress...

The storm surge and inundation from Hurricane Katrina that devastated Gulf Coast communities on August 29, 2005, presented an opportunity to evaluate and advance coastal ocean modeling capabilities at NRL and within the Navy. A highly realistic simulation of Katrina's storm surge and inland inundation was developed using the ADvanced CIRCulation (A...

The continued necessity of military special forces operations in riverine and coastal environments along with increasing civilian concerns related to sediment transport, search and rescue, pollutant dispersal, and coastal restoration, have resulted in the need for detailed knowledge of currents and water levels in coastal, estuarine, and riverine e...

Tidal inlets are important areas with respect to bio-diversity, sediment transport, and fresh water river outflow. This study examines the 2-D depth-averaged circulation of inlets that are driven by waves, tides, and fresh water river inflow using a coupled hydrodynamic-wave model. The circulation patterns of an ideal embayment and Bay St. Louis, l...

The use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) in coastal environments is a promising approach for remote oceanographic sampling but at present AUVs are costly and their integrity depends strongly on local currents. Typical AUV speeds are 1-6 knots, a magnitude that is comparable to tidal currents in shallow waters. Thus, AUV mission success depe...

Thesis (M.S.E.)--Princeton University, 1989. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-115).