[en] The present study aims to better understand how bathymetry and wind field interact to shape the circulation in well-mixed bays with particular emphasis on the lagoon of Mururoa. The simple model of Csanady (J. Phys. Oceanography 3 (1973) 429) is re-examined and some new analytical properties of the velocity distribution are derived. An extended version of the Csanady model, called the idealised model (IM), is then applied to the lagoon of Mururoa located in the Pacific. The circulation obtained by IM compares well with the circulation simulated by a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model. Our results show that IM provides a simple and powerful heuristic tool to gain more insight into the dominant dynamical regime of the lagoon. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Research center :
Centre Interfacultaire de Recherches en Océanologie - MARE - GHER
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Mathieu, Pierre-Philippe; University of Reading > Department of Meteorology > Center for Global Atmospheric Modelling
Deleersnijder, Eric; Université Catholique de Louvain-La-Neuve > Unité ASTR
Cushman-Roisin, Benoît; Dartmouth College > Thayer School of Engineering
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